Day 2064

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually like my dentist. I got my permanent crown today and I was impressed by the meticulous care the dentist took to make sure that it looked and felt exactly like the rest of my natural teeth. They took really good impressions a month ago and the new crown fits perfectly. The most surprising thing about today's visit, other than the fact that the chair I sat in was giving me a back massage, was the small Japanese woman who came in with a set of miniature brushes and painted the tooth with a special porcelain enamel so it would be an exact match with the adjacent teeth on either side. When she got the color blended just right they removed the crown and fired it in an oven for thirty minutes to fuse the enamel and make the color permanent. Dentistry has come a long way since the last time I had a crown put in. That was twenty years ago. I doubt that I'll wait twenty years between dental visits now. I probably don't have twenty years left.

It took a lot longer to fit and attach the crown than I had anticipated. I thought that they would just remove the temporary tooth, glue in the new crown and I'd be good to go in fifteen minutes. I was actually at the dentist's office almost two hours, but I have no complaints. I appreciate attention to detail and I was very impressed with everything they did. Now, all I have to do is have my teeth cleaned later this week and my dental journey is over for a while.

It used to take forever to get my monthly invoices posted and in the mail. It doesn't take long anymore, since my client roster has shrunk quite a bit. I got my August invoices in the mail today and the whole process, including a trip to the post office, took me less time than I spent at the dentist office. It's kind of sad that my once thriving business had come to this, but it's not easy to be an old man in a very young industry. The millennials that are in charge of ad agency creative departments now just aren't all that excited about hiring their grandfather. Most of them weren't even born yet in the heady Mad Men era where I learned my trade.

The temperatures continue to creep a little higher with each passing day. We've had a full week of unrelenting triple digit weather and it's been almost a month since we've seen any rain. The dogs don't like this at all. The mornings are bearable, but the thermometer seldom dips below eighty degrees anymore, even in the middle of the night. The possums and armadillos in the neighborhood must be hungry, because they are really tearing up the yard at night. Every morning, I have to replant some liriope that critters have dug up during the night.The Asian jasmine at the back of the yard is being covered by a thick layer of spider webs. I don't know what this is all about, but it happens every August. August is not kind to the yard.

Dash gets tested tomorrow to see whether his new blood pressure medicine is working. Hopefully, these new meds will keep his blood pressure under control. I definitely don't want him to have a stroke while he is barking at me for more bananas at breakfast. When I get Dash's blood pressure straightened out, I need to do something about my own. I switched from Benicar back to Zestril a few months ago because I became alarmed at all the 1-800-BAD-DRUG commercials I was seeing on TV directed at Benicar users. I may have to go back to Benicar though. The nagging cough I had while taking Zestril fifteen years ago has returned. It's really irritating. Bad drug or not, I prefer taking the Benicar.

We'll see if tomorrow brings any surprises. The only surprise I'd like at this point is a little rain.

J-Lo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2063

Sunday has become one of the busiest days of the week. Things that tend to get postponed or forgotten about during the rest of the week usually get tended to on Sunday. This is when the house gets cleaned, the gardening gets done, and most of my bookkeeping for the business takes place. When you add in a trip to the dog park for Dash and a trip to the gym for me, it can become a very busy day.

Now that we get up extra early to take Dot on her pre-dawn walk, it seems like I've added an extra two hours to my day. I've never been a morning person, but I might eventually become one at this rate. I've always been a light sleeper. Now, instead of putting my head under a pillow and refusing to admit that I'm awake, I just get up. I've grown to enjoy these early morning walks. It's really the only time a sane person would even want to be outside in August. There's usually a nice breeze before the sun comes up and Dot enjoys smelling things and barking at the occasional rabbits and squirrels we see along the way. We are usually able to take Dot on her exercise walk, feed the dogs, eat our own breakfast, take Dash to the dog park, and still be back home before 9 AM.

This leaves a lot of time to do laundry, change the sheets on the bed, water the plants in the back yard, vacuum the carpets, recharge batteries in the electronic gadgets, and go to the gym. If I time things right, I'm even able to listen to Ted Talks on the radio on the way to my workout. This seems like a good way to spend a Sunday to me. Things get done. I'm able to start the week fresh on Monday morning. And by staying busy, there is little time to brood about how boring my life has become.

I'm not nearly as exhausted as I initially was when I started my Sunday workouts, so maybe it's time to add a few more things to my routine. The hand bicycle and treadmill provide a pretty good cardio workout. I still enjoy shooting baskets from the free throw line, and there are several resistance machines I always use. Maybe it's time to start working with free weights again. Adding an extra twenty minutes to my workout probably wouldn't kill me.

Tomorrow, I'll finally be done with the dental work that started in January. The dentist will remove a temporary crown I've had in my mouth for over a month and replace it with a permanent porcelain crown. Hopefully, now that all my major dental problems have been corrected, I'll just need to go in for a routine cleaning every six months or so. Maybe with these big dental bills behind me, I'll finally have money for something fun. I kind of doubt it though. Life is always full of surprises.

I really hope that Dot's weak leg will start to improve, now that she's off the Palladia for a while. I'll be watching her closely this week, because if the chemotherapy is what was causing the renewed muscle weakness in her rear legs, we should start to notice a change within four days. I'm not expecting miracles. Even a small improvement would be a huge plus. Before beginning chemotherapy, Dot was getting to the point where she could get up and down on her own around the house without assistance from me. This gave her a feeling of independence and made her much happier. Maybe we'll get there again. Like I said, life is full of surprises.

Nautica is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2062

Janet and I drove up to the Lewisville kennels today to photograph the latest additions to the Dalmatian Rescue family. Even after all these years, I continue to be amazed that so many wonderful, friendly dogs like these could have been dumped and abandoned so casually. Every dog you see featured in my Dalmatian of the Day pictures was a member of the Dalmatian Rescue program at one point or another. We have helped hundreds and hundreds of Dalmatians find new homes, and this is just a single breed in a single city. Almost all of the widely recognized dog breeds have active rescue organizations very similar to ours. There are even larger, more ambitious rescue groups devoted to helping mixed breeds. You wonder how things ever got this bad. How can people treat a living animal like a disposable object? And why do people get a dog in the first place if they aren't willing to make a commitment to taking care of it? I just don't  understand people sometimes.

After we got back in Dallas, I sorted through the pictures and updated the Dalmatian Rescue website. It takes me a little longer to make the updates now that I have converted the site to a more complex mobile friendly format, but I don't think I'm in danger of running out of time. I've got more time than I know what to do with. Few people are fighting over my time anymore. The clients I have left probably don't realize what a good deal they are getting. I never miss a deadline, but I linger over their projects and try to make them last as long possible so I won't have to face the horrors of an empty day. I've worked all my life and I don't really know what to do with an empty day.

Realistically, an empty day is just a theoretical concept, now that the dogs are getting older and Dot is becoming so frail. Just taking care of Dot and Dash has turned into a full time job. I've developed a new respect for people who have children with disabilities. I don't know how they do it. I really sympathize with the ones who try to keep their personal ship afloat while running a small business or working out of their homes. I lead a pretty simple life and am lucky to have the time and resources to provide Dot and Dash with the best care I possible can. It's tiring and stressful though. Dogs live such a short time that I often feel like I've been living with dogs declining and dying all around me for the past twenty years. Spot, Petey and Greta are gone. I want to enjoy the unique friendship I share with Dot and Dash for as long as I can.

It looks like we've got at least another full week of triple digit temperatures. Now that we're locked in an August heat wave, I don't think anyone even remembers the Spring rain anymore. I wonder how long it is going to be before the lake levels start to drop again. It is really hot this Summer. It is no longer pleasant outside when we take our pre-dawn walks with the dogs. It's just a bit cooler than it's going to be later in the day. At least there's usually a nice breeze early in the morning and you don't have to worry about the pavement being too hot for the dogs paws. Once the sun hits your face, it's all over. By mid-afternoon the air feels like you're living inside a pizza oven.

I guess I'll go to the gym again tomorrow. They keep it nice and cold at the gym and the air conditioning almost makes the exercise worth it. I don't need to worry about mowing the grass anyway. The lawn isn't even growing anymore. I water on the days the city allows, but things keep getting drier. I haven't been up on the roof in over a month. That alone tells you how dry it has become.

Lilly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2061

I think we've got a plan for Dot now. She had an ultrasound scan of her abdomen today and the tumor has not grown any further. Her blood work still looks good as well. This is very good news. Dot's oncologist thinks it will be safe for us to discontinue her Palladia treatment for two weeks to see if this is what is causing the weakness in her rear legs. It is entirely possible that the lameness has nothing to do with Dot's chemotherapy, but since muscle weakness in a well documented side effect of Palladia, it would be good to know if this is what is causing the problem.

If discontinuing the Palladia makes no difference and Dot still continues to get weaker, we will assume the problem is neurological in nature and resume the chemotherapy. If she shows any sign of improvement, we will postpone the chemotherapy for an additional two weeks and then do another ultrasound scan. This way, we will learn two important things. We will know whether the Palladia is causing the muscle weakness and we will see if the tumor starts to grow again after being off chemotherapy for a full month. At that point we will have to decide whether to resume the chemotherapy for an extended length of time. The best case scenario would be if Dot's leg gets stronger without the Palladia and the tumor still does not grow any bigger. If this happens, maybe we just discontinue chemo entirely and monitor her condition every three months with an ultrasound scan.

When we left the cancer center today, the thermometer in the car said 118 degrees. I'm sure it wasn't really this hot, since the thermometer was picking up heat from the car itself. Once we got moving, the temperature went down to 106. That was probably closer to the real temperature. Either way, it was way too hot. Dot was happy to get home again where the air conditioner was keeping things comfortable. When the car sits out in the sun for any length of time, it takes most of the journey home just to get it cool again. At least Dot is riding better in the car now. I think I have finally learned how to get her situated so she doesn't slide around whenever I go around a corner.

The field monitor for my video camera finally arrived today. I discovered that every single device I want to use the monitor with requires a different type of HDMI cable. I didn't even know there were three distinct flavors of HDMI. I need a micro HDMI connector for the miniature cameras, a mini HDMI connector for the DSLR camera, and a regular cable for the video camera. This will require another trip to Fry's or Best Buy. All the cables I currently have are already attached to the TV.

When I was eating breakfast this morning, I was surprised to see that I was the only customer in the restaurant at one point. Often this place is so crowded that it's hard to find a table. Of all the people who come here, I seem to be the only one who is relentlessly consistent. I always arrive at the same time, order the same thing, and sit at the same table. There are lots of other regulars, but their schedules seem to vary. There are hundreds of reasons by people's plans change, but I still value consistency. I've always been a good observer.  When you look at the same things over and over again, you start to notice nuances and small details that other people miss. I can tell who cooked my breakfast now. Some of the cooks use more salt on the potatoes, others garnish the dish with extra cheese, or cook the Chorizo a little longer. I used to think the coffee was all the same, but now I can tell if they are using Ethiopian or Sumatran beans. These little things keep breakfast interesting.

I'm not sure what I'll do this weekend. Janet and I need to find time to photograph some new Dalmatians that have entered the rescue program. The house definitely needs to be cleaned. The hotter it gets, the more I'm craving an ice cold beer. I still can't bring myself to drink alcohol again though. The discipline I acquired when I was fighting Hepatitis C is apparently going to stay with me for life.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2060

I wake up every morning with a logical, well thought out schedule that everyone completely ignores. Clients could care less about my plans. The dogs don't care either, even though most of what I do has been designed with them in mind. The city of Dallas always thumbs its nose at my plans. It is almost impossible to leave the house without encountering an accident, a construction crew, or a broken stop light that brings traffic to a standstill and makes me late.

I really only had two things to do today, but keeping these simple tasks on schedule was next to impossible. The package I needed to pick up at the UPS will-call counter wasn't there, even though I received an e-mail saying it was ready to pick up. I eventually got things sorted out, but by the time I got home it was already time to take Dot downtown to her physical therapy session. I got the car ready for Dot, but she was on an entirely different schedule and was in no hurry to leave the house. It took a while to get her hooked up in her harness and then she didn't want to poop in the yard, so I knew there was a 50/50 chance she'd poop in the car. It was late, so we had to go anyway. On the way to the vet we got stuck at a malfunctioning stop light that was only letting three cars get through before it turned red again. The light changed five times before we made it through the intersection. The trip downtown took twice as long as it normally should. Luckily, our vet is always late too, so we were both back in sync when we arrived.

Dot did pretty well today. She actually seemed to have more energy than I did. This heat is becoming unbearable. October can't come soon enough. Even though I water the shrubs every day, the yard is still drying out. The house isn't insulated well enough to stay cool in the Summer, so the air conditioner has to work extra hard. Even the tap water is warm now when you turn on the cold water tap. The ground is so warm that it actually warms up the water as it it goes through the underground copper pipes to the house. I'm not surprised that Dot actually seems to like using the underwater treadmill these days. The water is nice and cool.

I watched bits and pieces of the presidential debate this evening. My initial impression was that each of the candidates did reasonably well. It often seemed like they were debating with the three moderators instead of with each other. The moderators seemed to have gotten some sort of directive from the network to make the show provocative. They kept trying to ask gotcha questions that would make them seem tough and probing to their news anchor peers. I'm not really a careful listener to these type of things, but my gut feeling was that the 10 candidates were more or less united on many issues and the moderators were just doing their best to stir things up. This was a little disappointing. I really didn't learn anything new tonight, but then I'm not a big fan of either politicians or news anchors. I would have rather watched a new episode of Dr. Who.

Dot gets an ultrasound scan tomorrow to see whether her tumor has grown. Hopefully it has stayed the same or even shrunk a bit. I'm always a bit nervous about these scans because they place Dot on her back in a cradle to do the imaging. With all the problems she's had with her spine, there's always a danger that a nerve could get pinched again. She needs the test though. All I can do it tell them to be extra careful with her. At least it's Friday tomorrow. The trash has been taken to the curb and I'm ready for the week to be over.

Margo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2059

There were heat advisories in effect today. How did we go from an unusually cool June to an unusually hot August? I'll have to admit that this dramatic change kind of caught me by surprise. I was so ready for a mild Summer that it took a while to sink in that it wasn't going to happen. This is just another beastly hot August in Texas. The only difference between this August and last August is that the dogs are a year older and are having a harder time coping with the heat. Let's just hope the air conditioner keeps working.

I did manage to make it to the gym today. They keep the temperature at the gym quite cold. I don't think I could afford to keep my own house this cold, but it felt nice. I had a good workout, which although it didn't make up for a lack of work at the office, did fill up an empty afternoon pretty well. This time the baby monitor worked. It was reassuring to see the dogs sleeping while I was sweating. I think the Apple Watch is actually shaming me into exercising more. I like to see lots of activity on the health app that tracks my movements, and the only way to keep the activity levels high is to keep moving.

I'm glad we got up extra early this morning. There were still stars in the sky when we left on our morning walk, but you could see the sky start to lighten minute-by-minute. There was a nice breeze and the temperature was only eighty degrees. This may still seem hot to some people, but it was a lot better than the 104 degree temperatures we had to deal with later in the day. I'm not looking forward to next month's electric bill. The air conditioner runs non-stop now and since most air conditioning systems only create a twenty degree difference between the inside and outside air, it's pretty hard to keep the temperature at 72. I'm settling for 76 now. It's about the best the air conditioner is able to do under these circumstances.

Dot didn't get an evening walk tonight since Janet had to work late, but I don't think she was unhappy about the situation. Even after the sun had set, it was still way too hot. When I took Dash out right before I ate dinner, he pooped quickly and then turned around to go home. Dash isn't stupid. He knew it was too hot to be outside. I thought I was home free with Dot, since she did her business in the yard just before I took Dash out. Apparently she thought she was still getting an evening walk though, since she pooped again all over the living room right when I was starting get everything ready for bedtime. I hosed everything off and I'm running a load of soiled blankets now. Sadly, dog poop has become a metaphor for my life.

Tomorrow will be busier whether I have any writing jobs or not. I've got to run down to the UPS service center and pick up a package and then Dot has her physical therapy session in the afternoon. I've given up on having UPS deliver to the house. So many things seem to need a signature and I'm never here when the truck arrives. It's less frustrating to just divert the package to the service center and pick it up there. I hope I can find a parking place when I take Dot for therapy tomorrow. A hair salon moved in next door to the vet clinic and now there are no parking places. As you might imagine, when I take Dot somewhere in the car, we need to be very near our destination when we arrive. We'll see if I get lucky tomorrow. They say that exercise relieves stress and frustration. I don't believe it's true, but if it is, I should have stayed at the gym all day.

Morgan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2058

I thought I'd go to the gym today. I didn't stay long. Before I started my workout, I checked the dogs on the baby monitor like I always do. It wasn't working. This was odd, because the Withings monitor is usually very reliable. I rebooted my phone in case that was the problem, but I still couldn't connect. Being the alarmist that I am, my first thought was that Dash had another seizure and knocked over the furniture again. His epileptic seizures are very infrequent, but when they do happen they can be alarmingly violent. Of course, my second thought was that the dogs were just fine and that the network was down. The network goes down a lot more frequently than Dash has seizures. I didn't want to spend the next hour and a half fretting about Dash, so I turned around and immediately went back home again to check on things. The dogs were fine. It was the WiFi network that had crashed.

It kind of bothers me that I have become a prisoner of fear. I worry about everything these days, especially when it concerns Dot and Dash. I feel like my one job is to keep the dogs healthy and protect them from harm. As both dogs age, it's getting harder and harder to do this. Dot is so fragile now that just getting her through a normal day is stressful. Dash is fine now, but he is a cancer survivor who has had horrible seizures in the past. If there was an emergency with both dogs at the same time, I don't know what I'd do. At any rate, I had no choice today. Once the seeds of doubt had been sown in my mind, I had to return home immediately.

Instead of a workout at the gym, I washed the car. I don't know why I like keeping the car so clean, because I seldom feel like going anywhere. If work doesn't pick up soon, I'm just a few steps away from binge watching an entire season of something on Netflix. I'd probably already have done this if I hadn't already seen everything that even remotely interests me. I've seen every single episode of Dr. Who, including the old black and white shows from the early 60's. I've seen every episode of Babylon 5, Lexx, Farscape, and Firefly. I've seen Gravity, Interstellar, and I'm patiently waiting for Ridley Scott to finish filming The Martian. Keep in mind that this is the same guy who used to favor authors like John Fowles, John Kennedy Toole,  Katherine Dunn, John Nichols, and Tom Wolfe. I was a voracious reader back in the day. Things change. The guy who used to enjoy reading Dostoyevsky in college now watches science fiction and reads instruction manuals.

We got a late start on our evening walk, but that was actually a good thing. The temperature had cooled down a bit and there was a beautiful sunset. Sunrise and sunset are the best parts of my day. It's that long interval in between that's the problem. Maybe I'll try to go to the gym again tomorrow. I'm not going to think that far ahead though. We'll just see what happens.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2057

I just took care of the bare necessities today. It was too hot to do anything else. We always get up a little earlier on weekdays, since Janet has to get ready for work. This morning it was still kind of dark when we left the house on our morning walk. I'm always surprised at how transient sunrise is. It comes and goes in a matter of minutes. In less than 30 minutes we went from seeing a few pre-dawn stars in the sky to watching the sun poking above the Eastern horizon. There was a light breeze and a really nice sunrise. I've gotten to where I really enjoy this quiet and peaceful prelude to the day.

The rest of the day was just a normal Monday. The dogs barked at me while I fixed my breakfast banana and peach smoothie. The back yard needed to be watered again, even though I just watered it yesterday. When the mail arrived, I was pleased to see a check tucked among the pile of circulars and junk mail. When I used to get paid, I would always be thinking of new ways I could invest in the business. Now things are much more basic. "I wonder if this will pay for my crown the next time I go to the dentist," I think. Or more commonly, "Maybe this will cover another month of chemotherapy for Dot."

Also in today's mail was a small padded envelope with the replacement for the watch part I broke last week. This time I reassembled the watch slowly and methodically, taking extra care not to over tighten things. When I got everything put back together, I placed the watch back in a drawer where I won't be tempted to break it for another couple of years. There was really no need to fix this watch at all. If it weren't for the fact that I actually enjoy fixing things, I never would have missed it. If I had the money and the time, I could amuse myself for years fixing a huge variety of things that have quit working around the house.

Dot seemed tired today. I am still perplexed that her good days and bad days come at such random intervals. I am probably way too process oriented. It seems like I should be able to chart her condition and have a clear idea of how she's going to be feeling next week or next month. It doesn't work that way though. It doesn't even work that way with me. Some days I'm full of energy and ideas. Other days I can barely get out of bed in the morning. Why? I'm pretty consistent. So is Dot. Some people celebrate life's little surprises, but I'd rather know what is going to happen next.

I have a pretty good idea what is going to happen tomorrow. I have a feeling that it will be almost identical to today. We'll get up early and I'll wonder why I'm not getting enough sleep. The dogs will be energetic and excited for a while, and then as soon as their walks and breakfast are over, they'll sleep for the rest of the day. I'll linger over my own breakfast as long as I can and then reluctantly open my e-mail and see if there are any surprises that will ruin my day. If there is work to do, I will do it quickly and efficiently. If there isn't any work, I will sit around wondering when the mailman is going to come and then go to Home Depot and buy a light bulb or something. A day without any clear purpose can be really long.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2056

I saw something on the news this morning that today is the thirtieth anniversary of the Delta Flight 191 crash at DFW. It seems impossible that it has already been thirty years since this happened. I flew a lot on business then, and I remember driving by the wreckage on my way back from the airport several times. It doesn't seem that long ago.

It would be five more years before I would leave the ad agency world and start my own company, but I'd already been living in Dallas a quite a while. I moved here from Seattle in the Summer of 1977 after working my way up to Senior Writer status at several well known Seattle ad agencies. The Delta crash and the continuing parade of historic anniversaries is making me feel really old. Woodstock and the moon landings remind me of my college years. The assassination of John Kennedy in Dealey Plaza and the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show remind me of high school. Sputnik, bomb shelters, and cars with huge tail fins remind me of grade school. It's been a long, long journey and it's easy to forget that most of it took place before the Internet even existed. I thought we'd be on Mars by now, but the Internet caught me by surprise. Who would have thought that I'd end up spending my evenings talking to the world this way.

Sleeping in on weekends is a thing of the past. We don't need an alarm clock. The dogs know that they get an early morning walk now and they wake up up well before the sun comes up. Even in August it's reasonably nice outside at 6 AM. Dot seemed strong and steady this morning and hasn't pooped in her bed for several days. It's always nice to get the day off to a good start. Our new routine involves taking Dash to a nearby dog park right after we return from Dot's morning exercise walk. Dot is tired after her walk and just sleeps while we are gone. Again, doing all this before breakfast is mainly to beat the heat that comes later in the day. We didn't stay long at the dog park today. Vandals had broken the latch on the airlock style gates where you can safely get your dog in and out of the park without all the other dogs escaping. Dash never misses an open gate, so he noticed the broken latch right away. It was so much trouble keeping him from making a quick exit though the easily opened door that we just packed up early and went home. It's a shame that this newly refurbished park has only been open a few months and vandals are already doing their best to ruin it. That's Dallas for you though. I often wish we lived in Wyoming.

There was an extra loaf of bread in the refrigerator, so I made French Toast for breakfast. French Toast with real maple syrup and a side of sausage patties are comfort food. I can't eat this way all the time,  but it's a nice treat on weekends. To burn off the extra calories, I went to the gym later in the morning. My workouts are more focused now and I think they are doing some good.

When I vacuumed the floors later in the day, I noticed that the rotating brush on the Dyson wasn't working. I took the machine apart and put it back together again after cleaning the really dusty bits. It must have just been a loose connection, because the vacuum worked fine after I reassembled everything. The only problem I have with the Dyson is that it is made of plastic. The whole thing feels flimsy. You should be able to bang a vacuum cleaner into walls and furniture without worrying about it breaking. I can't imagine building a car out of plastic. Why would you make a vacuum cleaner out of plastic with a bunch of fragile snap together components? If the thing was made out of aircraft aluminum, it would be fabulous.

The house is reasonably clean. I've more or less caught up on all my work projects. The dogs are happy and sleeping, and Janet fixed some delicious pork chops for dinner. I think I'm ready to start a new week.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2055

There are few things that will destroy your faith in humanity faster than running errands on a hot Texas Summer day. The roads are filled with disgruntled drivers who aren't paying attention to the road. The parking lots are filled with people who can't manage to park their oversize cars between the white lines. Grocery stores are the worst. There's always some 400 pound person blocking the aisles with their motorized cart while they fill their buggy with the same sugar filled, fattening foods that gave them diabetes in the first place. I always seem to get behind someone at the automated checkout kiosks who keeps inserting their expired credit card in the machine over and over again and wondering why it doesn't work. No wonder Amazon Prime is so popular. I just look around and think we are doomed, because all these people can vote.

There seems to be a big controversy on social media entering around the fact that many people are showing more compassion for Cecil the Lion than for their fellow man. This is a no brainer to me. Of course Cecil the Lion is getting more sympathy. He deserves it. Humans are in many ways the worst animals on the planet. We've reproduced like rabbits, taken all the planet's resources for ourselves, cut down the rain forests, and poisoned the waters. And then we sit around blaming each other for climate change. We operate on fear and greed and survive only because there's nobody higher than us on the food chain to eat us for lunch. Cecil the Lion and all those sharks swimming around East Coast beaches this Summer are actually the good guys.

I should have gone to the gym today, because it's about the only quiet place on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I burned my calories outside today by mowing the grass. The lawn is growing slower now, due to the heat, but it's still growing. After I mowed and watered the shrubs, I washed the sheets and made the bed. We've got plenty of bed sheets, but I like the bamboo sheets that Janet got in the Caribbean best, so I wash them over and over again and put them right back on the bed. If you've never tried bamboo bed sheets, I highly recommend them. They're softer than even the very best cotton and surprisingly durable.

The armadillo was back on our porch this morning when we got up. I thought I had blocked the area where he usually crawls under the fence, but the little guy seemed to have had no trouble removing my barrier and getting in the yard again. Now, I know who is making all the little trails through the Asian Jasmine ground cover in the back. The armadillo doesn't seem content with destroying the grass. Now, it is messing up all the shrubs and ground cover as well. I wish the critter would just go away. It's just one more thing that I always need to be aware of before I let the dogs outside.

Dot had a good day today. She was able to get up by herself when she woke up this morning and was steady and surefooted on our early morning walk. She still slept for most of the day when we returned, but that's OK. Janet and Dot both have birthdays this month. After all these years, we still don't know how old Dot actually is. They said she was four when we adopted her, but she was so active in her younger years that we began to think she was only three. Now, that she really is getting old, I'm beginning to think she might have been four after all. At any rate, on her birthday she'll either be fourteen or fifteen. I doubt that she's sixteen, because she sure seemed older than two when we got her. We'll never know for sure.

Snoopy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2054

I repaired something fairly complex today by watching a YouTube video. I set my laptop next to the project and every time the guy on the tape said to unscrew a certain bolt or grab a wrench, I would pause the video and do that step exactly the way he said. The whole process took about 45 minutes and worked like a charm. I'm going to start looking for YouTube videos every time I need to fix something. Watching someone else repair the exact same thing you're trying to fix is so much easier to understand than reading poorly written instruction manuals, or my time honored method, taking something apart without following any instructions at all. I think Ikea should include an assembly video with everything they sell. Trying to assemble something using those cryptic numbered drawings Ikea uses to avoid translating the instructions into forty different languages can be maddening. At any rate, YouTube has become my go-to source for learning things these days. I've managed to find detailed instructions on everything from designing mobile websites to fixing the refrigerator.

As I suspected, it was a slow day, so I went out and bought a pair of shorts and some new shoes at an end-of-Sumner sale. I didn't really need any new clothes, but 70% off is hard to resist. I don't think Summer is ending any time soon in Dallas, so I ought to get a lot of use out of these bargains. I also picked up some groceries for the weekend while I was out and about. No bargains here, but I always find it easy to rationalize purchasing the tasty things I find at Whole Foods and Central Market.

Maybe I'm watering the lawn too much, because I'm starting to see mushrooms growing in the back yard again. I always try to remove these as soon as possible, since I don't know my mushrooms well enough to recognize the ones that could be harmful to the dogs. Dot probably wouldn't eat mushrooms, but Dash would. He'll eat just about anything under the right circumstances. If mushrooms are an indication that the yard is too wet, the frogs that appeared out of nowhere to get under the sprinkler while I was watering shrubs this morning, are an indication that things are too dry. I'm never sure what to do about the lawn. I try, but I definitely don't have a green thumb.

Dot pooped in her bed again. There is no rhyme or reason to these accidents. Today's accident happened right after I'd taken her outside, so it caught me by surprise. I need to get one of those "Shit Happens" bumper stickers. This is quite literally what happens in our house these days. I try my best to be patient when Dot has an accident. She can't help it. I just hope the same thing doesn't start happening with me a few more years down the road. Getting old basically sucks, no matter who you are.

The weather forecast said there was a 20% chance of rain this afternoon. No such luck. After all the complaining I've done about rain over the years, you wouldn't think I'd be wishing for a downpour, but I was. It's gotten way too dry. The dogs hate the heat. The plants are dying. I'm ready for some rain.

Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2053

When we went for our physical therapy session today, we learned that Dot's vet is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow. The show is flying her and a cat named Skinny to New York this evening for a segment on how she helped this formerly 41 pound feline trim down to a svelte looking 19 pounds. Dot often barks at Skinny the cat when she's working out in the underwater treadmill. She doesn't appear to like a cat watching her exercise. Considering that Dot's limp is getting worse, she did amazingly well today. She was steady on her feet and was able to walk for seventeen minutes without wobbling back and forth like she did last week. We experimented today and did her acupuncture treatment before the treadmill workout. Maybe this relaxed her. I'm still not sure why, but Dot looked really good today.

I finished my writing assignment today, although it took longer than I expected. Sometimes simple product descriptions take longer to write than imaginative, creative pieces. Writing is unpredictable. There are times when even this blog is difficult to write. It shouldn't really matter what I write about, since I get paid by the word, but I still enjoy crafting a clever headline a lot more than cranking out catalog copy.

I wish I enjoyed working as much as Dash enjoys walking. He gets a long walk on Thursdays now, since Dot needs to rest before her physical therapy session. We walk twice as fast and three times as far during these Thursday walks. The fact that Dash still enjoys a long walk makes me really appreciate how good he is about walking very slow with Dot during the rest of the week. Dash is an essential component in our efforts to keep Dot moving. Without him, she has little interest in going anywhere. It's amazing how completely these two dogs have bonded. They trust each other, respect each other, and truly need each other at this point.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. There are a few website updates than need to be taken care of, but I don't anticipate anything major. After our pre-dawn walk with the dogs, I'll go out for breakfast and then pick up some groceries for the weekend. That's what I always do on Fridays. If it's a slow day, as I anticipate, I may go check out a few Summer clearance sales. Since I wear the same things Summer and Winter, I sometimes pick up great, very wearable bargains at these end of season events. There's a rare blue moon tomorrow night. The moon won't actually be blue and will look exactly like any other full moon. I still don't know why they call the second full moon in a single month a blue moon if it isn't blue. Of course, I don't know why sad people are called blue either. Language can be strange.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2052

I renewed my storage warehouse lease for another year. I always rent the storage unit for a year at a time, because I get thirteen months for the price of twelve this way. I've had the storage space for so long that I think I've received an entire year in free rent by now. When I first got the storage space, it was just a convenient place to store amplifiers and guitars between gigs and bulky lighting equipment between photo shoots. Now, it has become a repository of memories. The remains from just about everything I've ever enjoyed doing in my life is sitting on a shelf somewhere. There are wind surfing boards, electric trains, framed pictures from old gallery shows, obsolete computers, old guitar amps, and much more. I wish I didn't need a storage warehouse at all, but I get very attached to things. Even broken things are hard for me to throw away.

The latest thing I'm trying to resurrect is the old Sony laptop I told you about yesterday. I asked the guy in the repair shop at Fry's if he could install a new hard drive for this 1997 machine and he told that I could get a brand new laptop for less than the cost of repairs. When I explained that I didn't actually need the computer and that it was just something I wanted to fix, he gave me a blank look like he didn't understand. Maybe the guy had a point. Why would anyone want a computer that only ran Windows 98 and had a hard drive that with less capacity than the memory sticks I use with my cameras. I did a little research on Google and discovered that nobody even makes IDE hard drives any more. All the replacement hard drives are SATA. I found a website that showed how to disassemble the computer, but it looked a little tricky. The article with the hard drive upgrade instructions was dated 2008 and the author considered this particular computer to be ancient even back then. It might be harder than I thought to bring this thing back to life. Jeez, if it's this hard to bring a modern looking little Sony laptop back to life, I wonder how hard it would be to get my old Osborne-1 running again?

Dot had kind of a rough day today. She was a bit shaky on her morning walk and walked with a limp around the house. I still can't figure out what makes some days good and other days bad. I may be wrong, but I think it has a lot to do with how she sleeps at night. If she goes to sleep with her bad leg tucked under her, she always seems to have a limp the next day. I always try to make sure she is sleeping on her side with the bad leg on top, but it doesn't really help. She always wakes up two or three times a night to circle around and reposition herself. Usually when I wake up the next morning, she has managed to get the bad leg tucked up under her.

I managed to find a replacement the tiny watch part I destroyed yesterday. The little screw cost me $5.00 but I considered that a bargain. I'll try to be more careful when I try to reassemble the watch this time. I received another writing assignment toward the end of the day, so maybe doing this new article will keep me busy enough so I won't be tempted to fix anything else this week. I've broken enough things for one week.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2051

Nothing went as planned today. I woke about 4 AM to the now familiar smell of poop. Dot had pooped in her bed again. I cleaned up the mess, took it outside in a plastic bag and found myself face-to-face with an armadillo on the back porch. The armadillo seems to return every August like clockwork to tear up the yard, and here he was, right on schedule. After I put Dot's soiled blankets in the washer, I went back to bed and tried to go to sleep again. Unfortunately, I was wide awake by now.

When everybody else woke up about an hour later, I was already tired. I kept thinking that Dot looked a little unsteady on our morning walk, but probably the only unsteady one in the group was me. I really need to start getting more sleep. When we returned from our walk, the dogs still had enough energy to bark at me as I ate my breakfast.  I can quiet them for a while by feeding them slices of banana, but barking has just become a part of their morning ritual. They think it's fun.

Work is still pretty slow, so I organized files for a while and did my bookkeeping. For some reason I decided to recharge a very old Sony Vaio laptop and see if it still worked. It didn't. I kept getting an error message saying "operating system not found." I did a little investigation and realized that the hard drive had gone bad. It wouldn't have been that difficult to replace the hard drive and install a new operating system, but I wondered it it was even worth the trouble. This was an old, very slow computer that was running Windows 98 the last time I looked. I guess I could install Linux on the thing and keep using it, but why bother. An old, slow computer that won't boot is basically just a paperweight.

Since I failed to resurrect the old computer, I thought I'd try to resurrect an equally old watch. There was nothing special about the watch, other than the fact that I had to remove eight very tiny screws to open the case and replace the battery. The tiny screws were why I had avoided the watch for so long in the first place. I carefully removed each small screw, replaced the battery and just about had the watch back together when I managed to strip the threads reinserting the very last screw. Clumsy me. Now I need an exceedingly small screw extractor so I can try to remove the broken screw from the watch. Again, is it even worth the trouble? It's a cheap watch that I'd only worn twice in five years. With this dismal track record, I didn't even try to fix anything else today.

I managed to fix my dinner without burning anything and got Dot situated in her safe place again, so I could go to an evening animal rescue meeting. We talked about the next fundraising event and it was decided that I'll be taking a promotional picture for the event featuring dogs, cats, a parrot, a miniature pig, and a snake. This ought to be interesting. Tomorrow, I'll look for a source for very tiny screws.

Queenie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2050

I actually got out of the house today. I took a couple of Janet's watches up to my watchmaker to get the batteries changed. She had stopped by the Omega store in the mall over the weekend and they wanted an insane amount of money to change a battery. The amount was so high that it was almost as if they were telling her, "We just want to sell you overpriced new stuff. When it breaks, we don't ever want to see it again." I told Janet that I knew a guy who was still reasonable and fair. I enjoy talking with the watch repairman. We are both relics from a bygone era. We talk about fast cars, fine watches, and the futility of running a small business in today's world. I don't see the watchmaker much anymore. I can't afford to collect watches anymore. I can't even afford to keep them all running anymore. I was pleased when the watchmaker told me that the new mobile website I'd built for him was actually helping his business. Evidently, people really do use their phones to visit websites these days. Who knew? I just use my phone to check the weather.

I also fixed Janet's running shoes today. She was ready to throw a pair of somewhat new looking Nike's away when I told her that I just glue mine back together. The soles never seem to wear out on running shoes. They just fall apart first. The glue that seems to substitute for any type of legitimate stitching begins to delaminate fairly quickly. I discovered one day that I could just use Superglue to re-attach the soles to the upper portion of these shoes and they were good as new. I just use an old Jorgensen clamp from my Dad's workshop to bind the sole to the shoe while the glue is drying and thirty minutes later they're ready to wear again. After fixing the shoes and getting the watch batteries replaced, I felt like I'd had a reasonably productive day, even though I'd done no design or writing at all.

All the dogs seem to want to do these days is eat. I try to be very quiet when I'm snacking in the kitchen, but they always seem to hear me and come racing out for a treat of their own. This is problematic now, because Dot can't get to the kitchen as fast as Dash anymore and she gets mad. To make the small journey from one end of the house to the other, I need to hook her up in her special harness and support her rear legs in case she starts to fall. This involved procedure kind of takes the fun out of eating a few Fritos in the kitchen. I shouldn't be eating these high cholesterol salty snacks anyway, but I'm kind of like the dogs. What else are you going to do on a hot Summer day?

I discovered a quick and fairly easy way to update the new Dalmatian Rescue website, so that's one more thing I don't have to worry about. I was a bit apprehensive about converting an animal rescue website to a mobile friendly format, because these sites change so frequently. I'm so used to making these periodic updates using Dreamweaver that I wasn't looking forward to changing the complex code required in a responsive site. The whole process wasn't as hard as I thought, so maybe this old dog still has a few tricks left after all.

While I was driving up to the watchmaker's office today I listened to someone on NPR talk about different things you could do to keep memories from fading away as you age. Supposedly, a seventy year old person only retains half as much new information as a child. Makes sense to me. I was like a sponge when I was younger, soaking up an enormous amount of information every day. Now I can barely remember where I put my reading glasses. Luckily, writing seems to be one of the best ways to ward off senility. If there are bonus points for developing an ability to write about nothing at all, I should be good to go for a long time.

Deuce is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2049

Dash seemed more comfortable at the small dog park this morning. He politely greeted several other dogs and there was even a brief moment when he ran from one end of the park to the other, just like the old days. Taking Dash to the dog park, as well as walking both dogs together first thing in the morning, has pushed breakfast back a bit, but it's worth it. Life around the house has changed a bit since Dot's spinal injury and it's important that Dash still has a chance to feel like a normal dog now and then. A trip to the dog park on Sunday isn't much, but it seems to help.

A trip to the gym on Sunday isn't much either, but it seems to help too. I've started going right after breakfast, since I've noticed that the longer I wait, the more excuses I come up with for not going. Since this token gesture to health and fitness actually seems to be doing some good, it has occurred to me that maybe I ought to designate a special day for other activities as well. If I devoted one day each week to practicing the guitar, I might actually become a decent player again. I used to play pretty well in my younger days when there always seemed to be a guitar in my hands. The old Stratocaster isn't going to play itself. Sometimes I think I just use carpal tunnel as an excuse not to play. I'm good at making excuses.

If we continue this theme, I could definitely benefit from spending one day each week honing my video editing skills. I used to immerse myself in film projects for weeks at a time and became an excellent editor in the process. Now, I edit video so infrequently that I've almost forgotten how to use Media Composer. Ironically, I tell people to "use it or lose it" all the time. Maybe it's time that I practice what I preach.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that priorities change. When I was a documentary filmmaker and guitar maven, I didn't have dogs. My late in life love affair with dogs led to having veterinarians as clients and then expanded to animal rescue. I wouldn't change anything for the world, but I still wish I could play guitar like I used to.

There isn't enough time and there isn't enough energy anymore. Instead of writing a new song, I vacuumed the house with the Dyson and got out a bottle of bleach and a scrub brush to clean the soap scum and mildew off the shower stall walls. The shower stall had been getting worse and worse for months and it finally reached the point where I couldn't stand it anymore. There you have it. Keeping Dot moving, keeping the house from falling apart, and keeping my aging body from deteriorating even further had used up the entire day.

I've got some websites to modify tomorrow. Several Dalmatians got adopted this weekend, so I need to see how hard it is going to be to update the new mobile ready site I designed a few weeks ago. Responsive websites are turning out to be a lot harder to modify than I expected. It's not a terrible problem since I don't have a lot of clients anymore, but small changes do take more time. The need to keep working is another reason why I don't practice the guitar as much as I should. I need to send a note to my primary writing client and ask why the article assignments have dropped off again. I don't have nearly as many writing assignments as I did last Summer. I'm not complaining though. Janet bought a fresh supply of bananas and peaches, so I'll have a delicious smoothy for breakfast tomorrow. Dot actually had a great day today and was even able to walk about the house without her harness for a while. One way or another, we're going to make it through this hot Summer.

Smokey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2048

On hot July days it's a miracle if I can come up with anything to tell you at all. There's certainly not much going on today. There is little incentive to go out in this heat. We mostly just hunker down, hoping that the air conditioner stays cools and the cars don't break down. Neither of us like to drive in the Summer. Janet has been getting nails in her tires recently and even though I have a reliable car now, I have too many memories of sitting on the side of the road in 100 degree weather, waiting for a tow truck to come haul the Defender back to the dealership. I'm always worried that the car is going to break down when I'm taking on of the dogs to the vet.

Luckily, the dogs didn't need to go anywhere today. I only got out of the house briefly to get more Palladia pills for Dot at the cancer center and pick up Keurig pods and blueberries at Sam's Club. I should have picked up a sprinkler at Home Depot, because the sprinkler in the front yard broke while I was watering the lawn this morning. Sprinklers, especially the unreliable oscillating kind, never seem to last more than a year.

When I was walking Dash this afternoon, I saw a small plane circling the lake towing a banner asking someone to marry them. I wonder if the girl even saw the proposal? Who would just happen to be outside looking up at the sky on a hot 100 degree July afternoon? I certainly didn't see many people out on the lake today. Most people had the good sense to stay inside. We didn't stay out long either. As soon as Dash did his business, we headed straight back to the air conditioned house. I bet that girl would have preferred a nice candlelit dinner instead of an airplane towing a big red banner.

I rarely watch TV, but when I do feel like watching, there never seems to be anything I'm interested in. How long do I need to wait before there's a new season of Dr. Who? Top Gear seems to have disappeared from the airwaves entirely after Jeremy Clarkson got fired from the show. At the very least there ought to be an old episode of Firefly that I haven't already seen. This afternoon I would have settled for a channel that played Faulty Towers over and over again. Since I have little interest in reality TV, real estate and home improvement shows, or news about the middle east, I just turned off the television and took a nap with the dogs.

Dot and Dash must have been bored too, because they weren't content with napping. As soon as I got comfortable, they both started barking and wanted to do something. I got Dot hooked up in her harness and took the dogs outside several times. As soon as they got out in the back yard they remembered how hot it was and wanted to come in again. We did this over and over until it was time for their dinner.

Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting. If it's not too hot, we'll take Dash to the small dog park again. He seemed more comfortable with the little dogs last week. I'll probably go to the gym in the afternoon. If I've got to work up a sweat, I'd rather do it indoors than mowing the lawn in 100 degree weather.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day