Day 1972

There's nothing like waking up to the sound of tornado warning sirens. The dogs and I were sleeping soundly when the sirens went off, but we got up quickly to see what was going on. The dogs know what these sirens mean by now, so they were both agitated and upset. They refused to go outside and pee and generally acted like the end of the world was near. Storm phobia didn't keep them from eating though. I don't think anything would keep them from eating.

When the warning sirens went off, the storm was still about ten or fifteen minutes away. This would have been a good time for them to do their business, but they just looked at me like I was crazy when I opened the back door. Since the weatherman on TV said the approaching storm might have 70 mile per hour winds, I thought I'd eat breakfast quickly in case the power went out. This was an excellent time to try a Vitamix smoothie. I dumped two raw eggs, a banana, four strawberries, a little heavy cream and one scoop of ice cream in the blender and turned it on. Delicious! I don't know why I haven't tried this before, because the Vitamix has been sitting on a kitchen shelf for months. There were no problems with my teeth either. I think I've found a new favorite breakfast.

There was a horrendous amount of heavy rain during the morning, but around 1 PM the skies cleared a bit and I was finally able to take the dogs on a walk. I was surprised that they didn't poop in the house, because they both refused to go outside while it was raining. Dot didn't walk very far, but Dash was ready to go the distance. He's still wearing his protective sock, but wet grass makes it fall off even more than usual. I have to keep a close eye on his rear leg while we are walking, or the sock will be gone for good. Since the little rubberized socks cost fifteen dollars for a pack or four, I can't afford to lose one every time we take a walk.

There's not much to do on stormy days like this. When the rain was really bad, I curled up with the dogs on a big blanket on the office floor and took a nap. The dogs are pack animals and this helps to keep them calm. I'm never opposed to a nap anyway. Later, when things calmed down, I wrote an article and made my to-do list for Monday a bit more manageable. Later in the day, I went up on the roof and tried to see if I could hook the pump up to automatically remove some of the water while it was still raining. This seldom works for very long, because the pump gets clogged with tree debris, but it was worth a try. Heavy rains like we had today can almost double the weight of the roof. This is not very good structurally, so I've got to continue trying to removing the water as quickly as I can.

I was so pleased with my banana and strawberry smoothie this morning that I decided to use the Vitamix again and make soup for dinner. I seldom read instructions or recipes, so sometimes my cooking experiments are delicious and other times they are terrible. Today, I just dumped all the leftover vegetables in the refrigerator into the blender and turned it on. Oops. I forgot that soup is supposed to be liquid and ended up making something very much like hummus instead. Rather than admit defeat, I just poured a cup of water into the mixture and ran the soup program on the Vitamix again. This time the results were delicious. I had created a thick, very savory soup that seemed like it might belong on the menu at a nice Thai or Indian restaurant. I doubt that I could ever recreate this dish, because I just dumped in a bunch of leftovers, but it sure was delicious. I think the main ingredients were spinach, carrots, an orange peel, fresh salsa, ground pepper, cream, green chilies, a little diced chicken, and of course a cup of water. The VItamix is super easy to clean too. You just put some hot soapy water in the container and run the cleaning cycle. One minute later you rinse the container out and you're done. This is my kind of cooking.

It looks like we're going to have stormy weather for the rest of the week. Not a problem. I've got lots of new articles to write, a dozen bananas, a tub of fresh strawberries, and a blender. We'll be fine.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1971

After we walked the dogs and ate breakfast this morning, I took Janet to the airport. It doesn't seem like a year since her last family reunion, but time just races by these days. Last year, when Janet left for her Las Vegas reunion, Dash was still undergoing cancer treatment. Now Dot is recovering from spinal surgery. The entire year has been one dog emergency after another. Luckily, both dogs are much better now.

Dot and Dash never like it when one of us is gone, but after a day or so they get used to the new routine. We get up a little later. The walks take longer, because I have to walk each of them one at a time. Janet bags up their meds for me before she leaves. I just pick up a little packet labeled Saturday Night, Tuesday Morning, or whatever the date happens to be and the correct meds are inside. I hope the weather improves, because it's going to be a long week if it continues raining every day.

I picked up some easy-to-chew groceries on the way home from the airport and then spent the afternoon working on my mobile friendly test site. Slowly but surely I'm learning how to build responsive websites. I have several new writing assignments that I could have worked on, but I didn't feel like writing today. I actually didn't feel like doing much of anything today. I'm surprised that I got as much done as I did.

I've got all the ingredients to make smoothies for breakfast now. We'll see how that goes. Since one of the ingredients for my banana smoothie is ice cream, I may just eat the ice cream. I had a scoop for dessert tonight to avoid cleaning pie out of my teeth and was surprised that it didn't bother me at all. I thought for sure that a lot of the discomfort I'm feeling was that my teeth had become more cold sensitive, but maybe it's something else. If the smoothies work for breakfast, I may just start eating soup for dinner. Chewing crunchy food is definitely a problem as this point.

I wish the dogs didn't mope so much around when Janet travels. It makes me feel guilty. I try to keep them entertained, but both of them hate change. When anything changes in their routine, they act bewildered. I think I provide the stability in their life and Janet provides the excitement. They need both. I've learned from experience that stability isn't always appreciated when you're looking for excitement. Hey, at least Dot and Dash like to sleep in late. We'll probably be doing a lot of that this week.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1970

I had to go down to Janet's former employer and get some pictures I'd loaned them many years ago. It would have been nice if they'd just bought the pictures when Janet left the company, but they couldn't be bothered. I was surprised at how well the pictures had held up over the years. They were all from a gallery show back when I thought gallery shows were important. I had printed the photos perfectly using the best archival paper. They were professionally framed and the images still seemed relevant. I looked at these large, beautiful prints as if someone else had done them. It was a little sad. I doubt that I will ever go to the trouble to show in a gallery setting again. Been there, done that. These pictures will go to the storage warehouse where they will join a lot of other stuff I don't do anymore.

I found a great new website today that provides a minute-by-minute weather forecast, telling you exactly when it is going to start and stop raining for up to two hours at a time. The forecast is remarkably acurate and very useful for a person like me. You just provide your address and zip code and you immediately start getting messages like "rain will begin in seventeen minutes." You know exactly when the rain will begin, how much rain to expect, and when the rain will end. This is perfect when you need to find a little dry window of time to walk the dogs. I've been using the website to schedule our dog walks for several days now, and so far it's been right every time.

I'm so disgusted with food particles in my mouth that I'm going to start drinking smoothies instead. If I remember correctly, a banana, one egg, a few strawberries, some milk, and a little ice cream makes a pretty good milkshake. I used to make this concoction in a blender all the time because I was too lazy to cook. Now that we have a Vitamix, it ought to taste even better. It seems like the dentist could have given me a little rubber plug to put in the empty wisdom tooth socket before I ate, but I guess that's not the way it is done. I must have had an unusually large tooth, because it left behind a very large hole in my jaw. Maybe a tasty smoothie will help.

May must be the month for major website overhauls. My updates have gotten more complicated this month. I'm not complaining, because it's nice to have the work, but today's update was a bit confusing. I'm still not sure if I did the right thing. We'll see if anyone complains. That's often the only way I know if I've achieved my goal. It doesn't help that a lot of my clients are still using Internet Explorer. A lot of people never upgrade their browser or empty their browser cache. They're still seeing things that officially don't even exist anymore.

It looks like there are still tornado warnings in tomorrow's weather forecast. Whatever happened to April showers bring May flowers? We do have plenty of flowers, but there's been way too much rain. If this was an ordinary May, I wouldn't even need that minute-by-minute weather forecast website.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1969

Benicar, the medication I use to control my blood pressure, has joined the growing list of drugs targeted in class action suits. Every time I turn on TV I seem to see one of those 1-800-BAD-DRUG ads about Benicar. It seemed like it would be prudent to switch back to Zestril, my original blood pressure medication, so I stopped by my doctor's office in hopes that he'd just write me a script. No so fast buddy. I have to have a full exam and probably some more blood tests first. Nothing is simple anymore. Knowing my doctor, he'll probably want to keep me on Benicar, despite the ominous sounding TV commercials.

At least Dash has finished with all his meds. He seems to have made a full recovery from the torn paw pad and no longer needs antibiotics or pain pills. Maybe I should take his leftover pain pills. My teeth are still bothering me. I'm starting to think that it's not even the wisdom tooth extraction that is causing the problem now. When I initially went back to the dentist at the first of the year, he mentioned that I may have to have a crown replaced. He thought the existing crown had a crack in it and that this was causing the temperature sensitivity I was experiencing at the time. Unfortunately, he also said it was impossible to fix the crown until I had the crooked wisdom tooth removed. Somehow, having the wisdom tooth removed has upset a delicate balance that left me thinking I had great teeth for years. Now, the fortress appears to be crumbling.

Dot did great during her water therapy session today. The vet is very pleased with her progress, but thinks we need to be doing more strength building exercises. Instead of taking Dot on longer walks, she wants me to spend more time walking her up and down hills and inclines. This shouldn't be hard to do. The park is full of hills and inclines.

On the way home from the vet, I hit a deep pothole in the road and damaged one of my wheels. Potholes are everywhere this Spring, since we've had so much rain. Road crews are repaired some of them, but they have only scratched the surface. I've never seen the roads this bad. I'm really glad I got the tire and wheel damage coverage when I bought the car. It seemed expensive at the time, but when you figure in the damaged tire that was already replaced under the policy and the repair to this wheel, I've already paid for the coverage.

We've been on the verge of a bad storm all day. It rained a lot last night, and then off and on during the day, but I managed to get the dogs walked without getting wet. I may not be so lucky tomorrow. I think the weather is supposed to keep getting worse through the weekend, with the possibility of tornadoes on Saturday.  I hope this forecast is wrong. I don't even want to think about tornadoes on Saturday.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1968

I know it sounds impossible, but I've lost all interest in food. I still get hungry, but it's so hard to find food that doesn't get hopelessly lodged in the gaping socket the wisdom tooth left behind, that I don't look forward to meals at all. All the dentists have told me that this hole will close on its own as part of the healing process, but I'll believe it when I see it. In an effort to find something soft and easy to chew, I broke down and fixed myself French Toast this morning. This was a lot better than the crunchy granola and fruit I ate yesterday morning, but the bread got lodged in my teeth anyway. I've thought about a liquid diet of tomato soup, but acidic things like tomatoes give me heartburn. Even scrambled eggs get caught in my teeth. This sucks. I thought about going to the store and getting a package of hot dogs and eating them without a bun until my jaw healed. Maybe I'm just hungry for hot dogs right now. I have a feeling that they wouldn't work any better than anything else I've tried.

I had a huge website update to complete today. Somehow the new person responsible for social media at the company didn't realize I needed to be in the loop and when it finally dawned on them that the website was out of date, I was three months behind. More than anything, this shows you how completely Facebook has replaced the company website as the go-to place to show the world what you are doing. This website was hopelessly out of date and nobody even noticed.

I spent the remainder of the day writing an article for another client about an upcoming trade show. Many of my clients actually used to send me to these trade shows and conventions back in the day. Every one of them has abandoned the practice and just have me pretend I was there instead. Apparently Wikipedia and a little imagination are all you need these days. I kind of miss going to trade shows. It was a chance to stay in nice hotels and discover interesting restaurants using other people's money. Of course, this is probably why everyone quit sending me to these events. Nobody really needs to go to trade shows anymore. They are an anachronism. If it weren't for all the people desperate to get out of the office, trade shows would have died out quite a while ago.

I bet my electric bill is going to be higher this Summer. The severe trim the power company crews gave my Live Oak trees is already letting a lot more sunlight into the house. I've always liked the thick tree cover in the back yard and have been convinced that the shade keeps the house ten degrees cooler in the Summer. I certainly hope this massive tree trimming effort in the neighborhood eliminates our power outage problem. It looks like we're going to have bad weather for the rest of the week and if the power still goes out after the power company ruined my trees, I'm really going to be pissed.

Patches is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1967

The two Live Oak trees in our back yard are destroyed. The power company tree trimmers arrived early this morning and began butchering the trees. By noon, they both looked like stumps. If the tree crews came every year, they could trim the trees just enough so that the power lines running down the alley would be completely safe without destroying the trees. These guys only want to come every five or six years though and they always cut the trees back way more than necessary, so they won't have to return the following year. I assume that this saves money, but it makes a mess of the trees. I think they require a clear area of at least twelve feet around the each power line. Three or four feet would easily keep branches from touching the wires even on the windiest day, but of course, I have no say in the matter.

I am so sick of trying to clean food particles out of my mouth after meals without touching the hole where my wisdom tooth used to be that I almost feel like quitting eating. Eating has always been one of my few real pleasures and now it is a total nuisance. Hard crunchy things are difficult to chew and soft things get stuck in my teeth. Nothing seems to work. My teeth have become so sensitive to cold beverages that I almost welcome the warm salt water rinse I have to swish around in my mouth three or four times a day. Apparently, going to the dentist is like opening a Pandora's Box. One of my other dentists called today and wanted to set up an appointment to fix tooth number 31. The oral surgeon has already told all the referring dentists that he'd done his part. Now I need to repair the tooth next to the wisdom tooth that was removed. After that, I probably need a new crown on tooth number 30 as well.

Dot must be almost deaf by now. She slept completely through all the noisy chain saws and loud voices of the crew in the back yard this morning. It's a bit sad to see her growing deaf, but it's a blessing in a way. She's a lot calmer when she doesn't hear all the odd noises that used to upset her. When she finally woke up for a late lunch, the tree crews had gone. When she went out in the yard to investigate, she knew something had happened, but she wasn't sure what. I hate seeing the Live Oak trees chopped up like this, but maybe the St. Augustine grass will finally start growing. There's certainly a lot more light in the yard now.

I paid a few bills today and tried to resolve a doctor bill that slipped through the cracks two years ago and never got paid by insurance. I think I got things cleared up, but you never know with this type of thing. The sign company called and said the banner I ordered yesterday was ready, so I picked that up on my way home from the post office. By the time I got home, it was time to feed the dogs again. Dash lost one of his protective socks yesterday, so we tried to find it on our walk this evening. It was a futile effort, since Dash never likes to go the same way twice. We almost lost another sock this afternoon, but luckily I noticed it was gone just a few feet after he kicked it off. That's it. It wasn't a very exciting day, but hey, that's how I roll.

Bunny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1966

I called the dentist today to see whether I might have a dry socket. "Do you have a fever," the nurse asked? Nope. "Is there a foul smell or bad taste in your mouth?" Nope. "Are you in excruciating, unbearable pain?" Not really. "Well, you don't have a dry socket," she told me. When I mentioned that there was still a lot of discomfort, I'm surprised that she didn't tell me to "just deal with it."

My photo assignment today was documenting a veterinary dental procedure.  The dog that was having her teeth cleaned experienced a very rare allergic reaction to the anesthesia and had a sudden and rather serious loss of blood pressure. The mood in the operating room immediately went from routine to emergency status. I was very impressed at how quickly and calmly the veterinarian and her two assistants dealt with this life threatening situation. In less than a minute, countermeasures had been taken to restore blood pressure and stabilize the dog. As soon as a strong pulse was re-established, the anesthesia was quickly withdrawn in what is known as a "hard wake up" procedure. The dog is fine now, but still has terrible looking teeth. I don't know how she's going to get her teeth cleaned now. If I had seen all this before my own dental surgery, I would have freaked out. My biggest worry before having my wisdom teeth extracted had always been that something would go wrong with the anesthesia. Ironically, the veterinary clinic used exactly the same monitoring equipment as the dental surgeon did.

Today was very busy for a Monday. In addition to the photo shoot, I had some extensive website revisions to make and a large banner to prepare for printing. A new writing assignment came in toward the end of the day, but I'll have to deal with that tomorrow. Increasingly, I'm finding that I have difficulty getting everything done during the day. There just isn't enough time. Dot doesn't walk far in the morning's, but she walks very, very slow. I'm eating slower, because it's hard to chew. Nobody likes to talk on the phone anymore, so I'm spending a lot more time answering client's questions via e-mail. I wish simple questions didn't require complicated answers, but frequently they do.

Tomorrow will be a mess because the power company tree trimming crews have finally arrived in our alley. Dot always goes into a barking frenzy when she sees all these trucks and hears the chain saws. Hopefully, I can pen her in the office with me so she won't be distracted by all the activity behind the back yard fence, but I don't think it's going to work. Once the barking starts, it's very difficult to stop. In addition to all the noise they make, these tree trimmers have a history of butchering the large Live Oak trees in the back yard. They always trim way more than they need to and the trees look horrible when they're finished. There's nothing I can do to stop these guys. The power company has eminent domain over anything that gets close to the power lines and, like it or not, they have the legal authority to ruin my trees. They've done it before and they'll do it again.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be less hectic than it was today. I'll need to run up to Fastsigns and pick up the banner order I called in today. There's the new article to write, and one more website to update. Lord know long it will take to get all the food particles out of my teeth.

Crosby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1965

The dogs don't frequently decide to sleep in late, but when they do, it is always appreciated. The whole family finally got a good night's sleep for a change. When she finally did wake up, Dot was ready for a walk. She's kind of reached a plateau where her strength isn't increasing as quickly as it initially did, but these morning exercise walks are still doing her a lot of good. We're walking the dogs together now, but since Dash needs a much longer walk, he continues on with Janet after I return to the house with Dot. This works out pretty well. Both dogs get to smell things together along the trail for a while which makes them happy, and then when Dot gets tired, Dash can continue for as long as he wants.

After breakfast, I organized a big stack old old bank statements and brokerage reports. I don't know why I save these things so long, but it's a habit. After I got everything in the proper manila envelope, I turned my attention to a smaller stack of unopened mail. Whenever I sort through the junk mail pile, I inevitably find a few unpaid bills. Usually these are medical bills and most of the time they are a mistake. My secondary insurance is supposed to pick up the charges that my primary insurance doesn't pay, but frequently things aren't submitted correctly. Usually a few phone calls takes care of the problem. The reason that these bills wind up in the junk mail pile in the first place is that the healthcare industry is a huge source of junk mail. The older you get, the more of this type of mail you get.

I didn't make it to the gym today because I managed to think of three or four good excuses why I didn't need to go. My jaw continues to hurt, so I didn't want to do any cardio exercises that would raise my heart rate and cause me to start bleeding again. I had to burn some CD's for a client which took a lot longer than it should have, mostly because I had a bad batch of blank discs. I even considered going to a local car show that was being held down in the park today, but decided to just wash my own car instead. I used to love going to this annual British car show, but like the home tour a few weeks ago, seeing immaculately restored and preserved things just depresses me now. How do these people find the time to keep all their stuff so nice and pretty when my own stuff is falling apart?

I've got another photo shoot tomorrow. It's not actually a new job, just a continuation of the assignment I started last week. I think I'll take a different camera this time. The camera I took last week got confused by the mixture of incandescent, fluorescent, and LED lights. I never could get the white balance quite right. I could have took strobes for more consistent lighting, but it would have taken away from the spontaneity. Maybe all I need is a different camera.

I should probably call the dentist tomorrow. I've just about finished all my meds and my jaw still hurts. I don't know whether I've got a dry socket, or whether I'm just being a big baby. I kind of thought the pain would have completely gone away by now, but it hasn't. This is what happen when you only go to the dentist once a decade. I just don't know what to expect.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1964

I picked up one of those Chromecast sticks that plugs into your TV while I was out this afternoon. Now, all three HDMI ports on the back of the TV are filled with little devices that bypass cable. I never use the Roku and Hulu steaming sticks, so it is doubtful that I'll use Chromecast much either. I guess I just got the thing because it was on sale and I was curious whether it worked or not. Yup. Works like a charm. I'm fascinated by technology. I just don't watch TV very much. I was happy enough with my old analog TV that only got 13 Channels. Unfortunately, all the TV stations switched to digital broadcasting a few years ago and turned the thing into a door stop. Jeez, who needs 250 Channels? I mostly just watch old black and white Perry Mason shows to help me go to sleep at night anyway. Ironically, Janet would probably like Chromecast, but wouldn't have the patience to install the companion software on her computer and learn how to use the thing. I have lots of patience. I just don't understand the whole concept of entertainment. I could go for months without even turning a TV on.

I didn't really realize that eating would be such a problem when I had my oral surgery. Dislodging all the little food particles in my mouth after a meal takes longer than it took to eat the meal in the first place. I'm supposed to swish warm salt water around in my mouth to remove food debris, but it takes forever. According to my post-surgery instructions I still can't brush with a toothbrush or use a water pic. Somehow, my remaining teeth have become more sensitive to hot and cold too. It just makes me want to eat nothing but custard or Jello.

I really didn't do much today. I got groceries, filled the car with gas, refilled prescriptions, did some laundry and changed the sheets on the bed. I do most of these things every Saturday. It took a while for me to figure out how to install the Chromecast stick, but once I got it working properly, I just turned off the TV. No need to actually watch anything. Taking a nap with the dogs seemed like a much better alternative.

I'm glad I got the water off the roof yesterday, because it was too hot to go up there today. In the Summer, I have to wear gloves, because some of the surfaces become too hot to touch. The only good thing about the Summer heat is that after a light rain in July or August, the standing water just evaporates and I don't have to bother with sweeping it away.

I'm hungry for French Toast. It's tasty and easy to chew. French Toast for breakfast tomorrow sounds delicious. Unfortunately, I'm not eating bread anymore. I don't completely remember why, but I quit eating bread quite a while ago. It probably has something to do with avoiding diabetes. Bread is high in carbs and can spike blood sugar levels. Bread just isn't that good for you. It is very tasty, but blocks that absorption of other nutrients, contributes to vitamin-d deficiency, and quickly turns to sugar in your body. What a shame. Bread tastes to good.

Maybe I'll go to the gym tomorrow. I think I'm caught up on Sunday chores. I need to go to the gm more often, but I'd rather work on adding some new features to my mobile friendly test site. Learning something new is much more entertaining to me than watching a movie using the Chromecast stick. Going to the gym isn't entertaining at all, although I do like shooting the basketball. I'll probably just take another nap with the dogs.

Bogart is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1963

Now that the swelling is subsiding, I'm starting to notice that there is a rather obvious hole where my wisdom tooth used to be. I had initially thought that they would stitch this hole up or do something to eliminate it, but apparently not. The dentist has indicated that the hole where the tooth used to be will eventually go away, but I don't see how. Right now it's a nuisance. It's almost impossible to eat anything without food particles getting stuck in the cavity. I can't brush vigorously, or use a water pic yet, because this would break apart the blood clot and I'd start bleeding again. I can swish warm salt water around in my mouth but that's about it. I wish I had my crooked tooth back.

Despite my eating difficulties, I went out for breakfast this morning. My favorite dish on the menu is fairly soft and easy to chew. No problems there. I did get iced coffee though, instead of my usual steaming hot cup of joe. Iced coffee is surprisingly good as a breakfast beverage. Who would have thought?

One of my clients recently upgraded their websites to "mobile friendly" status with an easy-to-use automated widget provide by their web hosting company. The whole process just took a few minutes and only cost $200. The finished mobile sites looked pretty decent and passed Google's "mobile friendly" test. Jeez, how can I compete with that? It would have taken me weeks to duplicate the site created by the point-and-click mobile widget. Although I'll soon be able to create decent looking mobile sites myself, I could never convert something this inexpensively or fast. It's all pretty discouraging. Why am I spending all this time learning to write complex CSS code? This train has already left the station.

My photoshoot went well this afternoon, but that was a bit discouraging as well. I was supposed to candidly capture the active, vibrant personality of a busy office, but I was only there a few hours. I did get some nice shots, but not nearly enough. I will have to come back many times to capture the images the client is looking for. The office staff could probably do far better than me if they would just start taking pictures with their cell phones whenever an interesting interaction took place. Cell phone pictures are looking better and better every day. I would use my own phone on photoshoots like this, but a big heavy camera with a huge lens looks much more professional.

Since the weather looks like it's going to stay nice for a few days, I went up and got the water off the roof this morning. It's been several days since the last heavy rain, but unfortunately not much water had evaporated. I'm almost resigned to the fact that keeping the roof dry is going to be a never ending process. One thing is certain. I'm never going to buy a house with a flat roof again.

I hope my mouth gets back to normal soon. Eating is one of my few remaining pleasures, and this tooth extraction has definitely thrown a wrench in the works. I almost feel like skipping meals, because it's just too much trouble. Nothing can be too hot, or too cold, or too chewy. Even if you eat very carefully, some sort of evil hidden magnet still pulls food particles directly into the empty socket. All this makes a liquid diet sound good. Especially if the liquid was Scotch.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1962

We're making progress. Dot walked in the underwater treadmill without her special harness for the first time today. Dash managed to keep his protective sock on during his entire walk and hardly limped at all. The bleeding has almost stopped from the empty socket where my wisdom tooth used to be. I fixed a fairly normal breakfast of scrambled eggs this morning and since I still can't drink hot liquids, I let my morning coffee cool down to a lukewarm temperature before drinking it. It wasn't the best coffee in the world, but lukewarm coffee is still better than no coffee at all.

I wisely postponed climbing on the roof to remove standing water until I'm finished with my dental surgery meds, but I'm pretty much up to speed on everything else. I completed all my writing assignments today, went to the bank, and made a few website revisions. I did most of this in the morning, because the afternoon was reserved for Dot's physical therapy.

I hope I sleep better tonight. Last night, I woke up about 3:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep again. I spent the rest of the night listening to the two dogs snoring on either side of me and counting the times the furnace went on and off. Ideas often pop into my head when I have insomnia like this but they are usually wasted. I recall thinking of several clever ways I could improve my responsive website experiment, but I forgot them all by the time I turned on the computer the next morning. I worried about getting a dry socket and got up and drank some water. By the time I got back to bed, Dash had stolen my covers. It wasn't worth waking him up to get the bedspread back so I grabbed the nearest dog blanket, pulled it over my head and tried to get to sleep again. Luckily, I don't have  insomnia very often, because I don't enjoy it.

Our rainy Spring weather been good for the wildflowers this year. The meadows in the park are becoming more colorful by the day. I see a new variety of flower coming into bloom just about every time we go on a walk. Today I noticed that the Milkweed plants are starting to bloom. I've always liked the symmetry of these odd little spherical bundles. We call the little five sided green blooms Antelope Horns down here. I don't know why. The Milkweed flowers will last about a month and then they'll be replaced by something else. It's a nice time of the year for a visual person like me.

Tomorrow I have a photoshoot. Dot is doing well enough now that I'm comfortable leaving her for two or three hours. I'll be able to go out for my Friday morning breakfast as well. I'm not sure what I'm having yet, but I'm sure there's something on the menu that's easy to chew. Most of the forbidden foods are back in play after 48 hours anyway. I've already taken the trash out to the curb, but I still need to remember to charge up the camera batteries for tomorrow. I think I'm ready fora good night's sleep this evening.

April has already come and gone. This month was tiring and a bit stressful, but it went quickly. It's hard to believe that it's the first of May tomorrow. May is usually when it starts to get hot here in Dallas. Let's hope our unusually cool Spring lasts a bit longer.

Bea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1961

Maybe I was overly apprehensive about the dental surgery. Either the procedure wasn't as terrible as I anticipated, or the drugs haven't worn off yet. My jaw is uncomfortable, but the pain is nothing compared to the time I pinched a nerve in my neck a few years ago. Regular blog readers may remember this episode as one of the worst trips to Las Vegas in recorded history. Maybe I wouldn't be so fearful of dentists if there weren't all those consent form you have to sign. They are very graphic. Today, I had to initial a paragraph that said I understood that the dentist might break my jaw if the extraction was particularly difficult. To the surgeon's credit, he told me that he had never broken anyone's jaw, but that it does happen. I also had to initial another paragraph that said the dentist might have to leave a portion of the root attached to the jaw if he decided at his discretion that it would be more harmful to remove it.

Dentistry is a messy business. Unlike most other forms of surgery you can't just put a bandage on the results. Most dentist don't even suture the hole after they remove wisdom teeth. They just wait for a blood clot to seal the wound. Until that happens, you have to keep putting a gauze pad in your mouth to soak up the blood. I went through a lot of gauze pads today. I also wore a weird elastic contraption around my head that held a cold pack on the right side of my face. It looked like something out of a 1940's horror movie, but it worked. Whenever one of the cold packs melted, I would replace it with a frozen one in the freezer. I don't think I'll wear this device out in public, but it's great for sitting at the computer. I'm not a big fan of narcotics, so I definitely prefer ice as a pain reliever to Tramadol and Codeine. The dentist gave me a prescription for Codeine. I haven't used it yet, and doubt that I ever will.

The dogs are very intuitive. Whenever Janet or I have become sick, they become very calm and act like little nurses. Today when Janet brought me home loopy and full of anesthesia I knew the only thing to do was go back to bed. The dogs quietly curled up beside me and I slept for three hours. When I woke up, I couldn't really remember what happened at the dentist. I know that I talked to the surgeon right after I woke up, but I couldn't remember a thing. Janet said he gave all the same post-surgery information to her, telling her that I wasn't going to remember a thing. Those must be some powerful drugs.

As the day progressed, I began to feel increasingly normal. About mid-afternoon I felt good enough to sit down at the computer and write an article. It may not sound coherent to the client, but it looked pretty good to me. Dash is getting better too, so I took him on a longer walk this evening. His special sock stayed on for the entire walk and he hardly limped at all. I made sure he walked at a slow, measured pace, even though he loves to run. We've all got to do things at a slow measured pace these days.

I had Mac & Cheese for dinner, because it was one of the things on my "OK to eat" list. I should have had soup. I feel little particles of pasta stuck between my teeth and I'm not allowed to brush for another 24 hours. This is going to drive me nuts. I hate having little food particles in my teeth and use one of those dental water pics every night like a miniature pressure washer to remove the debris. Jeez, I'm not supposed to use a water pic for a week. What am I going to do?

Tomorrow that attention shifts from Dash's limp and my teeth to Dot's ongoing rehabilitation. We're scheduled for another session in the underwater treadmill. Things are getting back to normal.

Parker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1960

I think the antibiotics are working. Dash did a lot better at keeping all four paws on the ground today. He still limped a little when he tried to walk too fast, but his condition was visibly better than yesterday. It wasn't all smooth sailing though. Dash woke me up twice during the middle of the night to go outside. He raced around the yard on three legs like he was possessed. Dash acted like he had an upset stomach and needed to poop. After several tries, he eventually did. It could have been the Clavamox. On the other hand, it could have been something bad he ate in the park. The important thing was that Dash eventually did his business and we finally got some sleep.

I made some website revisions today and after I uploaded the new content, the client sent me an e-mail saying that nothing had changed. This happens all the time. Am I the only one who regularly clears my browser cache? I patiently explained that he was looking at an old version of the site and that if he re-loaded the page, cleared his browser cache in the preference menu, or just restarted the browser he would probably see the new changes. Since I never heard back from him, I guess one of those remedies worked.

I had some writing jobs today, but I got side-tracked experimenting with my mobile friendly test site. Today I learned how to create drop down menus that automatically re-size for different devices. Life was so much easier when everyone was looking at the same 17" CRT display and used their phones for making phone calls. I'm slowly getting comfortable working in this new responsive design environment, but I'm also getting bored with it. It's a race against time to see if I can learn enough to be useful before I get sick of the whole thing. It's getting harder to find a reason to stay on the cutting edge of anything anymore.

Tomorrow is the big day. I can't eat anything after 10 PM tonight and Janet has to drive me to the dentist tomorrow. I'm supposed to take an antibiotic and a pain killer one hour before surgery. There is a nice steak in the refrigerator, but Janet froze it, saying that I'll probably be eating soup for the rest of the week. The procedure is only supposed to take an hour or so, but somehow I think I'll be dealing with the aftermath for a lot longer. I just hope when I wake up from surgery that only one tooth is missing. I still have a fear than more than one will be removed if the oral surgeon decides that some other teeth can't be saved either. I know that the tooth right next to the impacted wisdom tooth has been damaged, but I'm hoping that all it will need is a filling. If the second tooth has to be removed, I will need an implant. Dental implants are a long, expensive process. Let's keep it simple. Just remove tooth number 32 and be done with it.

Tomorrow will be interesting. I've got lots of writing and website work that needs to get finished. The dogs still need their walks. Tomorrow's blog post needs to be written and published as well. I hope the anesthesia wears off in a hurry. I don't have time to be loopy all day.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1959

When Dash woke up this morning, his limp was much worse. This was an unexpected surprise, since for several days his condition had been getting better. Dash refused to put any weight on the leg with the cut paw pad today and hopped around on three legs. This was not good. He could easily tear his cruciate on the remaining good rear leg if he continues to walk this way. It was clear that Dash needed immediate medical attention and I was lucky to be able to get him in to see Dot's vet today on very short notice. My initial worry was that he had torn a cruciate ligament, but the vet said that he was beginning to get an infection under his paw pad instead. It happens. We left with prescriptions for Clavamox, Rimadyl, and Tramadol, along with instructions to return for another exam if his condition hasn't started to improve within 72 hours. It's hard to imagine that a little cut could cause so many problems, but the vet said to imagine a paper cut on your finger, only ten times worse. There are lots of nerve endings in a dog's paw and this type of injury can be very painful.

Dealing with two dogs who are having trouble walking at the same time isn't quite as difficult as it was dealing with Dot and Dash when they both had cancer at the same time, but it definitely is tiring. Whenever you're trying to help one dog go outside, you're always wondering what the other dog is doing inside. When there's time, I always try to pen the dog I leave behind in a safe secure place. When either of these dogs has to poop though, you have to act fast. Neither one can hold it very long and there have already been a few accidents. Even the vet agrees that I have two very high maintenance Dalmatians right now.

Lately, every day of nice weather seems to be followed by a day of terrible weather. Today was grey and stormy again. Yesterday's nice weather didn't even last 24 hours. Luckily, it didn't rain while I was driving Dash to the vet. He doesn't ride well in the car even on a sunny day. Since he wouldn't go near the hammock contraption I use for Dot, I had to completely reconfigure the car and make the rear section flat again. Dash usually hops in the back when I open the tailgate, but since he can't hop anymore, I have to lift him up to get him inside. Did I mention that Dash hates to be picked up. He squirms around and squeals like something terrible is about to happen. I had a hard time even getting him in the car today. As I said, I have two very high maintenance dogs.

I hope the antibiotics kick in soon. Dash really needs to start getting better in a hurry. I have a feeling that I'll be having my own problems after the dreaded dental surgery. Maybe the dental work will go smoothly and there won't be painful side effects. I hope! I'm not expecting miracles though. Nothing else has gone smoothly this month. Why should my luck change now? It's weird that Dot was actually walking better than Dash today. It just goes to show that you should never take anything for granted.

Needless to say, work hasn't been going terribly smoothly either. There have been some miscommunication here and there this week and several things have had to be done over. I blame it on the weather. When is this rain ever going to stop? It's certainly not the end of the world, but a few days of sunshine and a little luck would definitely improve my mood.

Chance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1958

We went on a home tour this afternoon. Every year a local school PTA sponsors a tour of mid-century modern homes in the neighborhood and it's always fun to compare our house with similar houses that have been kept in much better condition. Seeing these cool houses used to be inspiring. Now it's a little depressing. Our house will never look this way. It seemed pretty obvious that none of the homeowners on today's tour had dogs. Well, they didn't have large dogs anyway. The hardwood floors were scratch free. The windows weren't caked with dog slobber. And the furniture wasn't coated with dog hair. Several of the homes had dangerous open stairwells where there weren't any risers between the treads to keep a smaller dog from falling through the opening. I sure have changed. I used to measure a home purely on design esthetics. Now, my prime concern is whether it is convenient and safe for dogs. Practical or not, it was fun seeing these immaculately preserved examples of 1950's architecture. With an unlimited pile of money and a year's worth of rehab work, our house could look just the same.

I never did make it to the gym today, but I did get the grass mowed in the front yard. It's kind of an unwritten rule that when all your neighbors mow their grass, you have to mow yours too. It's been so wet this Spring that the grass has been growing unusually fast. I thought I could wait to mow until next week, but the fast growing grass makes the yard stand out like a sore thumb. On close inspection, a lot of the greenery in the front yard turned out to be Chickweed and Henbit, but I'm not particular anymore. As long as it still looks green after its mowed, I'm fine.

The weather was nice today, but it doesn't look like it's going to last. I'm already tracking a bad storm on the weather radar that looks like it's going to arrive here about 11 PM. Tornadoes have already touched down west of Fort Worth and large hail has been reported in several places. I hope the storm dissipates before it arrives in Dallas. I'm really tired of the volatile and exceptional wet weather we've been having this Spring. I'm sure in July I'm be begging for rain again, but right now, enough is enough.

We finally found a sock that will stay on Dash's leg. We've got a whole pile of baby and dog socks that didn't work, but he managed to keep the latest pair we bought on his feet for his entire evening walk. It's not a big breakthrough in the whole scheme of things, but it does make life a little easier. I still keep thinking that it shouldn't take this long for his foot to get back to normal, but since three different vets have told me that Dash's limp could persist for up to two weeks, I guess I'll take their word for it. He does seem a little better today though. That's a good sign.

It looks like I've got a ton of work to do next week, but it's hard for me to focus on it. All I can think about is my upcoming dental surgery. I'll sure be glad when that's over with.

Brady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1957

The nasty storms that blew through town last night were followed by clear blue skies and mild temperatures this morning. The beautiful weather was a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one. The dogs both enjoyed their walk today and it was hard to get them headed toward home again before they became too tired. Although he is continuing to get better, Dash still starts limping if he walks too far, and Dot just doesn't have the strength for a long walk yet. While we were headed home, we passed a fire department ambulance hopelessly stuck in the mud. I hope that there was nobody in the back, because it looked like it was going to be a long time before this particular ambulance was going to be delivering anyone to the hospital.

As I do on most days following a hard rain, I removed the standing water from the roof. Today I let the pump do most of the work. It takes a lot longer and I have to climb up and down several times, but removing the water is definitely easier this way. I let the pump run on the main roof while we were eating breakfast, changing the bed sheets, and doing laundry. Then I went up again and switched the pump to the lower carport roof while I swept off the residual water from the main roof. Sound exciting? No, I didn't think so. Hey, at least I got something done. This seems like a much better way to spend my time than all those people down in the park today who spent their afternoon sitting in a hammock. I counted about ten hammocks today. Apparently sitting in a hammock on a nice day is a popular thing to do.

Since I was thinking I'd mastered the basics of responsive design, I thought I'd try something a little fancier this afternoon. Apparently, I didn't master all that much. I was trying to add drop down menus to my rudimentary mobile friendly site and even watching the tutorial video three times didn't help. This is a lot different than Dreamweaver.

When I was getting groceries today, I stopped by the pharmacy and filled the prescription the oral surgeon gave me in January. The prescription consisted of an antibiotic and two painkillers. Great. So, having your wisdom teeth removed is going to hurt and there is a risk of infection. I'm still not very happy about having this tooth removed. I'm a very symmetrical person and it's going to drive me crazy to have more teeth on one side of my mouth than the other. You might wonder why I don't just have the wisdom tooth on the opposite side of my mouth removed too, but removing more teeth than absolutely necessary would also drive me crazy. I'll just be glad when this is over.

Dot seems to be in a bad mood tonight. She's been barking at me and Dash for most of the evening. I don't know what she wants. I've taken her outside three or four times and she just stands there. I think she's frustrated that although she is much stronger now, she is still not strong enough to do the things she wants. It would probably be frustrating for anyone to get a taste of freedom and then realize you are still not really free.

I'll probably go back to the gym tomorrow for the first time in ages. I used to get a lot of exercise walking the dogs, but now that both Dot and Dash are taking short, very slow walks, these excursions hardly even register on my UP band. I'm definitely not getting my 12,000 steps a day anymore. I could always mow the grass tomorrow, but I think I'll wait until the ground gets dry again. I don't want the lawn mower to get stuck in the mud like that ambulance I saw this morning.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1956

Good grief. We're under a tornado warning again. As soon as I heard the news, I began recharging my phone, laptop, and tablet. Strong storms and power outages go hand in hand in this part of the country. I'm slowly learning to stay prepared. We're eating dinner in a hurry too, in case the oven goes out. I wish the dogs had taken my advice and taken an early walk. They just stuck their nose out the door and didn't even go outside. I guess they could smell what was coming.

I feel better about Dash's limp. I called his oncologist today and asked about the possibility of bone cancer. He told me that it was very unlikely that Dash's type of cancer would ever spread to the bone. He also said it was unlikely that Dash would succumb to a completely different type of cancer at this point in time. It seems increasingly likely that the limp is caused entirely by the torn paw pad. The oncologist said that his own dog had injured a paw pad once and that it took several weeks to heal. "Give it time," he told me and asked me to call him again in several weeks if Dash's condition didn't improve. This specialist is always very busy. I was amazed that he spent ten minutes talking with me. Dot and Dash have some great doctors. I"m convinced that they get far better medical care than I do myself.

I spent most of the day designing a supposedly simple brochure for a client. They want to print the brochure using Vistaprint, but for some inexplicable reason Vistaprint won't accept Quark Express files. Why? I've been using Quark for decades. This venerable software used to be the gold standard for print designers. Apparently the software has fallen out of favor. I had to design the whole thing in Photoshop instead, which certainly wouldn't have been my first choice. It is cumbersome to have all these layers. The original brochure I was updating was done in PowerPoint and a lot of the images were created in Adobe Illustrator, but saved as a PDF. It was a mess. The actual design was pretty simple, but converting all the files to the proper size and format and remembering what layer they were on took forever. I hope everyone likes what I did today, because I definitely don't want to spend tomorrow doing everything over again.

I reluctantly confirmed my appointment for dental surgery next week. I was very tempted to postpone the surgery again, but I've got to get this done sometime. Since I was originally scheduled to have the wisdom teeth removed in late January, I guess I've delayed things long enough. I hope having this tooth removed solves the problems I've been having, but somehow I doubt that it will. Once you start going to the dentist, you have to keep going to the dentist.

While I was eating breakfast this morning, a group of guys at a nearby table were arguing about whether the original Star Wars trilogy should be viewed before or after the three prequel movies. There was a heated  discussion about whether the movies should be viewed in chronological order or in the order they were shot. Some said four, five, six, one, two, three. While others said, one, two, three four, five, six. They were serious. At another table, a group of older guys were talking about man caves. This pretty well summed up the state of the world today for me. It's hopeless.

I had weird dreams last night and woke up in the middle of the night worrying about Dash's leg. I hope I sleep better tonight. Actually, I'd like to sleep the entire weekend.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day