Day 2288

Last night just before we went to bed, Dot's left rear leg became completely lame. She wouldn't put any weight on the leg at all and had a lot of difficulty standing even while I was supporting her using the Help 'Em Up Harness. It was almost impossible to tell whether the injury was a temporary numbness, a torn ligament, or another ruptured disc in her spine. I did my best to make her comfortable, putting her to bed on her side, with the bad leg on top in a relaxed position. We all went to sleep and when we woke up the next morning, the leg was fine.

This is how fragile Dot is these days. There is no margin for error. If she sleeps on her weak leg wrong, she is unable to walk when she wakes up. If she stumbles while we are walking in the park, it might take her two days to recover. The Palladia pills make her weak about 48 hours after she takes them. Just barking at Dash is enough to make her poop in the house. Right now, she is the definition of a high maintenance dog.

The dogs should have been happy today, since the weather has turned brisk and cold again. They weren't content with the weather though and pestered me all day. Dot would bark at me to help her up and take her outside. As soon as we were out the back door, she wanted to come in again. We did this over and over again. When Dot would settle down and go to sleep, Dash would start barking and get her riled up again. She pooped in her bed twice. She has one dog blanket I must have washed five hundred times. The thing is indestructible.

I balanced my checkbook today and made sure that I have enough money to finish the month. I wrote some large checks to pay credit card bills and deposited some small checks in the bank. I picked up prescriptions for myself and Dash and tried to make sure that I didn't get them mixed up. I definitely don't need to be taking phenobarbital. Dash needs the stuff to control seizures, but the last thing I need are downers.  Everyday life is enough of a downer as it is.

Just when I was finally warming up to the idea of getting a larger iPhone, Apple comes out with a new smaller model that is exactly the same size as my current iPhone 5. Maybe I'll get one of these new SE models. It's about time for me to upgrade and one of the reasons I've waited so long is that I really like a smaller phone. The larger 6 models just didn't fit in my pocket that well. Maybe these new phones will even fit in my existing case. I think I like my case better than the phone anyway.

Dash goes to the vet to have his teeth cleaned tomorrow morning. I'll need to take him in really early because he has to fast. Getting either of the dogs to do anything without breakfast is always a challenge. I'm glad we only have to do this once a year.

Big Boy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2287 - Vernal Equinox

It was nice that the first day of Spring turned out to be a Spring day. Since this is Texas, we could just as easily have had snow. It was a little cold in the morning, but by mid-afternoon there was definitely a hint of Spring in the air. I used the pleasant weather to catch up on yard work. I pruned some backyard bushes and hauled an abandoned agility course we used when the dogs were younger out to the curb for this week's big trash pickup. I thought about mowing the grass, but I forgot to charge the mower battery, so that will have to wait until another day.

On the way to the gym this afternoon, I stopped at the REI store to look for some flip flops. I like to wear socks around the house and when the dogs need to go outside in a hurry, it's always hard to put on my shoes quickly enough. I've had to go outside barefoot occasionally when Dot couldn't wait. At any rate I was looking for some slip on sandals without the band between the big toe and the other toes that you typically find on flip flops. I finally found a pair that I liked, but they were $130. WTF? How did flip flops get so expensive? There were nice hiking boots in the store for the same price as these flip flops. I left without buying anything, because the price seemed ridiculous. I'll probably come back later though, because the shoes were exactly what I was looking for. Why do I always have to like the expensive things?

While I was at the gym this afternoon, I got to thinking about the yard work I'd done this morning.  Yard work is strenuous. When I did more around the house, I had no need to go to the gym. I used to mow the grass with a push mower. I hauled in tons of round river stones in the back of the Defender to make decorative areas in the shady spots where grass wouldn't grow. I used to put in the St. Augustine turf myself instead of hiring landscapers. I did lots of things that kept me fit and made me tired. I quit using the push mower first. It was simply too exhausting. Gradually other things fell by the wayside as bones got brittle and joints got sore. Today, when I was pruning the Photinia bushes I couldn't even reach a lot of the branches because of my dislocated shoulder. Age has definitely taken its toll. As I finished my twenty minutes on the treadmill, I concluded that going to the gym was for people who work in offices. If you do any type of manual labor, you don't need to go to the gym.

Dash gets his teeth cleaned this week. I always worry about dental exams because a long time ago a friend of mine had a dog who died during a routine dental exam. Dash is what they call a "hard wake up" dog as well. He freaks out sometimes as he is coming out of anesthesia. Dash has a great vet and I know everything will be OK, but I still worry. I don't like going to the dentist myself, but it's something you can't ignore. Gum disease can be very serious in an older dog.

I actually got a good night's sleep last night. My activity tracker said that I reached 90% of my recommended sleep goal. That's as close as I've ever come. Usually I get about 40% of my sleep goal. I don't expect to sleep nearly as long tonight. It's a work day tomorrow and we all get up early.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2286

I'm a light sleeper. When I wake up, I try to remain as quiet as I can. If I remain still, I know I can usually stay in bed an extra thirty minutes to an hour. I've learned that as soon as Dash senses activity in the house, he will get up and start barking for his breakfast. The barking wakes Dot up and she gets excited, which often causes her to poop in her bed. After that happens, sleeping in is a lost cause.

I woke up tired this morning and remained tired for most of the day. I'm not sure how to get the sleep I need. It's taking me longer and longer to write the blog in the evening, so I get to bed late. Janet gets up very early on weekdays. That means we all get up early so the dogs can have their walk before she goes to work. On days like today, where we actually can sleep in, Dash usually has other ideas. I'm sure that mothers with young children face very similar problems. They're younger than me though. Grumpy old men need their sleep.

We've started having frozen toaster waffles on Saturdays because they're so easy to fix. On weekdays I have my thirty second banana and strawberry smoothie and often pick up Chinese take-out for dinner. There's a trend here that I don't really like. Simplification of meals usually comes to an inevitable conclusion when you're drinking Ensure everyday and have one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" moments. That's what happened to my Dad. I need to avoid oversimplification. Complexity keeps your mind and body going. I probably should start making fancy omelets for breakfast like I used to.

Today was beautiful. The sky was clear and the humidity was low. There was a chill in the air when we walked the dogs this morning, but that was good because Dot does much better in cold weather. Everything in the yard is starting to grow again, which means that I really need to get the landscapers out next week to give me a bid on repairing the lawn and ground cover. I am reminded of this because Facebook has started posting those "memory" pages on my wall every morning. This morning I saw a blog post from two years ago that clearly indicated that I'm behind this year. I should already have the St. Augustine turf installed by now.

There was so much I needed to do today and so little desire to do any of it. I could have gotten started on my taxes. I could have pruned the Photinia Bushes in the back yard. I could have washed the car or vacuumed the house. All I did was change the sheets on the bed, wash Dot's dog blankets, and go to the grocery store. Maybe I took a nap too. If I was smart, I'd be asleep right now. That's still at least an hour away though. I've got to reconfigure Dot's bed so she's next to me. I've got to run a test print in the large Epson printer. I've got to clean my teeth with a variety of sonic toothbrushes and empty the dehumidifier. Then I turn the lights out and hope that everybody stays asleep for the rest of the night.

Pringles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2285

The Palladia appears to be working. When Dot had her Ultrasound scan this afternoon, there was no evidence that her cancer was continuing to grow. Everything appears to be stable. This was good news, although it does mean that she will need to continue her chemotherapy. We'll take things one month at a time, scanning her abdomen every thirty days to evaluate the status of the mass in her liver. Dot's oncologist seemed encouraged by today's results and told me that often the tumor starts to shrink after about three months of treatment. If Dot's mobility doesn't continue to deteriorate, I think we're OK. We can always discontinue the Palladia if it is making it harder for her to walk.

I went back to my original breakfast restaurant this morning. It was disappointing to see how much the new restaurant across the street has hurt their business. This morning, there were a lot of empty tables and it looked like they had to lay off some kitchen staff.  The food was still excellent, but you could see a look of resignation of everybody's faces. Things have changed.

It looked like the construction crews, cyclists, and moms who didn't have time to fix breakfast for their kids were still regular customers, but that the hipsters had all abandoned the place en masse. This confirmed something that I have long thought about hipsters. They are conformists at heart. If one hipster does something, they all have to do it.  Maybe this explains the proliferation of man buns, messenger bags, and Amish style beards. At any rate, the local hipster community has decided that the restaurant across the street is the place to be.

I got a call from the guy who has been hosting all my websites since the mid 1990's. He wanted to give me a heads up that he was planning on selling his business soon so he and his wife could travel more. The guy is 72 and I've been amazed that he's run a successful web hosting company for as long as he has. It's not an easy business. Almost every day someone is trying to hack into your servers and cause as much chaos as they can. I wished my friend well, but I was sad to hear the news of his retirement. It was the end of an era. I will probably have to move my websites somewhere else. There are plenty of places to choose from, but I really enjoyed having a friend I could talk to personally when things went haywire, instead of calling a tech support number and talking to somebody in India.

The decline of my favorite restaurant and the upcoming demise of my hosting company seem like different aspects of an ongoing trend. The march of time is gradually making my world irrelevant. Stores I have done business with for decades disappear overnight. Software I depend on is no longer supported. Clients retire or in some cases even die. I am forced to change or adapt just to survive. I don't like this. The world seemed as it should be from the day I graduated from college until the mid 1990's. Those were good times. Now, I can barely recognize where I am.

I'm always nervous that Google will abruptly decide to abandon Blogger someday. That would be just my luck. I'd wake up ready to continue my journey to Day 5000 and discover that my blog and all the other Blogger blogs had simply disappeared. It could happen. So much has changed already that further changes like this seem almost inevitable.

Nick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2284

I woke to the sound of distant thunder. With rain on the horizon, we quickly got the dogs ready, so they could take their morning walk before we all got wet. It wasn't a long walk, but everybody did their business and we got back home again without being struck by lightening. The rain didn't last long, but it will probably be back tomorrow. This is just normal Spring weather in Texas.

After breakfast, I took care of a few new website requests and confirmed Dot's appointment tomorrow at the cancer center. I was glad I made plans to get a haircut today, because there wasn't much else to do. I often do a little shopping at Northpark when I get my hair cut, but I had no desire this afternoon. I drove straight to the salon and was back home again an hour later.

While I was in the chair, I overheard a young millennial talk to his stylist about trying to decide whether to take a vacation or stay in town to study for a test. Nearby an older women was talking to her stylist about selling a large house to live permanently in a motorhome with her husband. Occasionally, I have things to say myself, but today I just listened. I didn't even stop at the Apple Store on the way home. Jeez, I usually love the Apple Store. I hope this isn't a sign that I'm becoming more reclusive. I'm reclusive enough already.

The refrigerator was pretty empty and I thought about picking up some Thai food for dinner. Then I remembered I'd have to go out in rush hour traffic to pick up the to-go order and decided to make a sandwich with the few remaining leftovers instead. It wasn't a great dinner, but it seemed appropriate, since it wasn't a great day either.

Dot was surprisingly strong today. Several times she got up from her bed by herself and surprised me by wandering into the office or the kitchen to see what I was doing. I was impressed that I didn't have to support her rear legs while she was eating dinner this evening. She wobbled a little, but managed to stay on all fours as she slowly and methodically ate her meal. She even pooped outside after dinner. Even though this was a good day for Dot, it's going to be hard to decide whether to continue her chemotherapy when I meet with the oncologist tomorrow.

It's also going to be hard to decide whether to return to my regular breakfast restaurant or try something else on the menu at the new place across the street. The new menu looks tempting, but I'd hate to see the old place go out of business because I was a fickle and unloyal customer. Most of the places I like tend to go out of business anyway, so I like to do what I can to support them.

The trash has been taken out to the curb. The dogs are ready for bed. I'm caught up on work for the week and a have a fresh new haircut. As long as it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'm good to go.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2283

It took forever to get home from Dot's therapy session today. There was an accident on the freeway that shut down all four Northbound lanes. I knew something was wrong when I got on the access road and a couple walking on the sidewalk kept passing me every time a stopped at a traffic light. The traffic was so backed up on the access road that pedestrians were going faster than I was. The access road was still better than the freeway though. At least we were moving. The freeway was completely gridlocked. Every time I get stuck in traffic like this, I wish I lived in a small rural town with a population of 300. Of course this little town would have to have high speed internet, dependable FedEx delivery, and a very good vet, so it only exists in my imagination.

Dot did very well on the treadmill today, considering the uncertain way we started the day. I woke up early this morning to the distinctive sound of a dog trying to throw up. I quickly got Dot in her harness and we took her outside. Once outside, she seemed to calm down. She didn't throw up at all and pooped and peed instead. After that, we all went back to bed. For the rest of the day she seemed completely normal. Odd little episodes like this are one reason I get very little sleep these days. There's always something unexpected going on.

Even work is full of unexpected surprises. A client wanted me to remove a page from his website because he said it contained a virus. The page was just a simple HTML document and nothing was wrong with it. I didn't argue though. It was much easier to remove the page than to explain why it couldn't possibly contain a virus. Was the website infected a virus? Nope. Did the client have a virus on his own computer? Probably.

I picked up Dash's blood pressure medication today. I was initially confused, because I could have sworn that I'd just picked up blood pressure meds two days ago. Janet reminded me that I'd picked up Dot's prescription and that the two pills were completely different. I still don't know why Dot and Dash are taking two different pills for exactly the same condition. The fact that I take a third medication to control my own high blood pressure makes things even more confusing. There are literally dozens of medications that have been approved to treat hypertension. Each doctor or vet has their favorites and nobody seems to agree on anything. I hope the dogs pills have fewer side effects than my own. I will say that all three pills work. Dot, Dash and I all have normal blood pressure now.

After several years of taking Dot to physical therapy on Thursday, I keep thinking that tomorrow is Friday. Nope. Eventually I'll get used to our schedule change. Sooner or later I'll get used to Daylight Savings Time too. I wish I could get used to rain. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow.

Ruthie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2282

There are so many things piling up on my to-do list. They will all get done, but it will take a while. It's time to reinstall the battery in the lawn mower and see if it still works. I store the 24 volt battery in the house during the Winter to make sure it won't freeze, but that doesn't guarantee that it will still hold a charge the next Spring. If the battery doesn't work, I will need to get it re-celled again. I've done this twice already, but it's still a lot cheaper than buying a new lawn mower. I need to get the tree trimmer to remove a few dead limbs from the backyard Oak trees. I've been waiting until Spring, so I could make sure which limbs were really dead. Now, it's pretty obvious. It's time to plant new St. Augustine grass in the backyard. The grass never seems to last more than a single season. It's long past time to start working on my taxes. I also need to get the roofers to patch a few worn spots in the elastomer roof coating. This has to be done every year as well. I can't get excited about any of these things, but they all need my attention. While I'm at it, I might as well call the plumber. The washers have worn out in several faucets, making them almost impossible to turn off completely. One of the toilets runs as well. I used to do these type of repairs myself, but I've lost all desire to be a handyman.

Dot seemed very shaky today. She was slow on her morning walk and had more difficulty than usual standing without assistance. When she's wearing her harness, I can tell if she is supporting her own weight or not. She can usually support her own weight fairly well if she is on flat ground and moving forward. Today, she stumbled a lot and I had to keep her from falling. I'll be glad when we have our consultation with the oncologist on Friday. I'd like to know whether it is the cancer causing the weakness, the Palladia pills, or something else.

I like the warmer weather, but I'm not wild about all the bugs that announce the arrival of Spring. I've started seeing ants around the house again and the crane flies are everywhere. Crane flies look like giant mosquitoes except that they don't bite and they fly very slow. You can catch them with your hands, but you just give up after a while because there are so many. Every time I open the back door at night to let the dogs out, ten of these irritating bugs manage to get inside. They are everywhere this year.

When I wasn't chasing bugs, I was repeating everything I did yesterday. I paid a few more bills and stopped at the pharmacy on the way home from the post office to pick up a prescription that was on back order yesterday. I even had the same thing for dinner as I had yesterday, since we still have a lot of leftovers from the weekend. We did avoid walking in the dark this morning, since we made a point of starting twenty minutes later.

I have some major website repairs to make tomorrow. The client wants to remove a page that has always been an integral part of the main navigation menu. I hate when that happens. To remove this one page, I have to end up changing all the other pages. Oh, well. The client is always right. I certainly have time to do this cosmetic surgery tomorrow. The only other thing on the schedule is Dot's physical therapy session.

I hope Dot feels better in the morning. Sometimes it helps when she gets a good night's sleep. I hope I get some sleep tonight as well. Four to five hours a night just isn't enough.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2281

After months and months of watching the seasons slowly change, it seemed weird to be plunged back into darkness again. There was an artificial feeling to our morning walk. It was as if all the gains we had made since the Winter Solstice had been erased in a single day. I still don't know what this arbitrary time change means. What does it prove to pretend that it is an hour earlier? At any rate, we're going to have to start walking a little later in the morning until the days get longer. The darkness felt a bit uncomfortable this morning.

The recent time change wasn't the only uncomfortable aspect to the day. It was also unseasonably hot. The temperature climbed above 90 degrees this afternoon, which seemed just as strange as walking the dogs in the dark again after watching the days grow longer since mid-December. The air conditioner is running now, although I bet the furnace will be running again tomorrow morning. At least Texas weather gives me something to talk about on days where very little happens.

The Prairie Verbena is starting to bloom alongside the trails in the park.  These perfect little circles of tiny purple flowers are usually a reliable sign that Spring has arrived. Maybe there will be one more cold front before we can finally say goodbye to Winter, but I doubt it. The trees are getting green. The ducks are starting to nest again. It won't be long before I have to get out the lawn mower and begin the weekly ritual of making the front yard look as nice at the neighbors yards.

I think the neighbors are already ahead of me. We have a new neighbor who seems to love lawn equipment. Almost every day my peace and quiet is interrupted by the sound of lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and chain saws. They apparently haven't learned that the effort is futile. If you live near the park, the prevailing winds will ensure that your yard is soon filled with weeds. It's not like my minuscule writing schedule needs that much quiet time anymore, but the noise is still irritating. I'm probably the quietest person on the block. My lawn mower is electric and hardly makes any noise at all.

There were a ton of things I needed to do today, but the only things I actually accomplished were making an appointment to get a haircut later in the week and picking up two prescriptions at the pharmacy.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to stay motivated and engaged. I used to jokingly tell people that I worked for praise. Now that I live in a world with very little feedback and direct encouragement, I realize that this statement wasn't a joke. A lot of things seem utterly pointless when nobody notices.

I still take new pictures every day, although I've lost interest in exhibiting in galleries. I still write everyday, although I no longer try to get published. Maybe this is enough. I do know that Dot appreciates me, although it would be difficult to explain my new found poop cleaning expertise on a resume. You're reading this, which gives me all the reason I need to continue writing.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2280

We got off to a late start this morning. I woke up at 7 AM, which meant it was really 8 AM because of Daylight Savings Time. Dot couldn't wait that long. She needed to go outside immediately and before I could get her harness attached, she peed on the living room rug. It wasn't her fault. It was her old, slow companion. I hate it when she has an accident just because I wasn't alert enough to see the signs. She does try to tell me, but it doesn't always work in the morning when I am sleep deprived and haven't had my coffee yet. At any rate, it wasn't a big deal. I sprayed the rug with Nature's Miracle, took it outside and hosed it down and left it to dry in the sun. The rug will live to serve another day.

Dash got a bath today while I went to the gym. I don't think either of us really enjoyed the experience. Janet always asks if I had a good workout and I don't even know what that means. She really enjoys going to the gym, but to me it's just a way to moderately reduce the chance of having a heart attack. It's kind of like taking statins and blood pressure medication, except that I sweat more. It would be nice if I enjoyed these workouts, but that would be out of character for me. It's rare that I enjoy anything these days.

I definitely didn't enjoy going up on the roof for the third time this week, but maybe the third time is the charm. According to the weather forecast, we are supposed to have clear skies and warm weather for the next four or five days. I probably should get the landscapers out to refurbish the back yard before the rainy season is completely finished. Last year, we planted the St. Augustine grass in March and the Spring rains really helped it get established before the Summer dry spell and underground grubs killed it again. It wouldn't hurt to call a tree trimmer as well. Now, that the Oak and Elm trees are starting to bud, I'm starting to see more than a few dead limbs.

The park was really crowded today. It's always this way on warm, early Spring days. Dash can smell food from quite a distance, so he's always trying to crash someone's picnic. It's a shame that there are so many loose dogs in the park on weekends. When Dash sees a loose dog, he immediately turns around and wants to go home again. Our afternoon walk got cut short this way today. It's been many years since Dash was attacked, but he has never forgotten. A single loose dog can ruin his day.

I bet we'll be walking the dogs in the dark again tomorrow. I looked outside around 6 AM this morning and it was still quite dark outside. I should of gotten up then and taken Dot out to pee, but I didn't. No worries about repeating this mistake on a weekday. The clocks have been re-set and we'll all be up at the crack of dawn whether I like it or not.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2279

Daylight Savings Time begins tonight. Why do we even need Daylight Savings Time? It's always been a nuisance to me. Proponents say this annual time shift saves energy and reduces crime. Opponents say that it increases heart attacks and is economically disruptive. There is little hard evidence that it does much of anything, but I will have to re-set quite a few clocks tomorrow morning. So much for sleeping in on Sunday morning too. Whenever we wake up tomorrow, we will already be late.

There was a light mist when we walked the dogs this morning, but as the day progressed, the sky gradually got brighter. By the end of the day, I actually started to see patches of blue sky. I was glad to see things start to dry out, since I had lots of errands to run today. It was just a normal Saturday, but days like these are so much easier when you aren't wet. I filled the car with gas, got supplies at Home Depot, and picked up groceries for the week. Janet and I both typically go grocery shopping on Saturday. I get the things you can buy in bulk, and she gets the fresh and perishable things. We never shop together. That would be a disaster.

I wish I could figure out when Dot was going to poop. I keep trying to make her incontinence a rational, predictable process and it just isn't. I try to be alert and get her outside in time, but often she surprises me and there is a mess to clean up. I don't even think she realizes she has to go anymore. Her bowels work perfectly, but the nerves that communicate the process back and forth to her brain have short circuited. Dot still has cancer, but all her visible problems are neurological. It's sad to see her decline, but heartening to see how well she has adapted to her limited mobility. She is handling the whole situation so much better than I would under similar circumstances.

I spent a huge amount of time learning how to code and build responsive, mobile friendly websites and I'm already starting to forget what I've learned. Once again, I'm facing the "use it or lose it" dilemma. There just aren't enough new projects coming in to keep my skills honed. I've designed cool new websites for clients whenever I've had the opportunity, and updated all of the existing websites I manage. I updated a lot of sites for free just to show off my new skills. I thought everybody would be delighted with all the new capabilities they were getting, but a lot of people didn't even notice anything was different. Many of my clients forget they even have a website until a customer complains about it. Such is life.

I noticed on the news the other day that Barack Obama was speaking at SXSW this year. How did SXSW ever become such a big deal? Jeez, I spoke at SXSW in the mid 1990's. There were probably only 40 people who attended my talk, but I actually was a presenter. How times have changed. I miss being on the cutting edge. You can't look backwards though. I keep looking forwards into a very uncertain future.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2278

Curiosity finally got the better of me. When I was driving to breakfast this morning, I turned right instead of left and pulled into the parking lot of the new restaurant across the street from my regular place. Yes, despite my loyalty, I abandoned ship. Hopefully, the consequences of turning right won't be as disastrous as they were for Dr. Who when Donna Noble made a wrong turn and then had to go back in time to convince herself to turn left and save the world. I liked the new place. Instead of breakfast tacos and migas, this place featured locally sourced meat and eggs. Apparently this is what hipsters like to eat, because the place was filled with men sporting long beards and man buns. I ordered cinnamon pancakes, bacon, and homemade biscuits and gravy. Everything was delicious. I won't abandon my breakfast restaurant, but I'll return to this new place whenever I'm in the mood for comfort food.

I can't figure this weather out. The day was punctuated by short fierce storms interspersed with longer periods of relative calm. During one of these calm periods, I thought the rain was finished and decided to clear the water off the roof again. As soon as I was finished, another squall swept through town and erased all my efforts. I'll never learn. I cleaned the car when I saw a patch of blue sky in mid-afternoon and then got it dirty again when I had to go out and pick up the take-out meals I had ordered for dinner. At least I was able to walk the dogs without getting wet. These relatively dry walks and my cinnamon pancake were probably the silver lining to a day filled with some some very dark clouds.

I had some website work to finish today, but it wasn't really enough to distract me from the terrible weather. I think I'll abandon any future plans to remove water from the roof or clean the car until I'm convinced that the skies have cleared. I've really wasted a lot of time dealing with water issues and accomplished absolutely nothing. I'm still trying to get Dash to go outside and pee and Dot hasn't pooped since breakfast. It's been that kind of day.

I'm worried about Dot. She has been stumbling a lot today and seems to have difficulty standing without assistance. Some of this weakness is caused by the weather, since the damp, cool air aggravates her arthritis. My fear is that the cumulative effects of her chemotherapy is starting to wear her down as well. We've got one more week to go before we do another scan to see whether the Palladia pills are working. Then we've got to decide whether all this is worth it. I wish we could ask Dot what she wants. I'm guessing that she wants to live as long as she can, because she still seems to enjoy her life and doesn't appear to be depressed at all. As long as Dot wants to keep going, I'll do my best to help her.

The weather forecast says the rain will continue thru tomorrow. Then we are supposed to have four days of sunshine before the Spring rains start again. That's about as good as you're going to get during the rainy season. We'll hope for the best.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2277

I think I've entered my own private version of the Twilight Zone. I don't know how long you can spend endlessly cleaning up dog poop in the house, removing water from a flat roof, watching the political circus on cable news, and checking your Facebook feed for obituary notices before you go stark raving mad. The high point of my day is deciding what to eat. The meal itself is usually an afterthought, but the anticipation of eating is still kind of nice.

There were multiple accidents to clean up today. I'm amazed at how well the washing machine is working, since its been getting quite a workout this year. Dot is starting to feel the Palladia pills she took on Wednesday. It takes 24 to 36 hours before I notice any difference. Typically, she starts to become more tired than usual about 24 hours after she takes the pills and then starts to recover again on the day she is due for another pill. The new schedule gives her two days to recover between each chemotherapy treatment and it appears to be working. I hope the Palladia pills are actually doing what they are supposed to do, because I hate to see Dot have a bad day.

I got my March invoices out today. It didn't take long, because there aren't many to send out anymore. Since there wasn't much food in the refrigerator, I thought I'd pick up some Chinese take out on the way home from the post office. I found a nearby Pei Wei where I could order online and ended up getting the Pad Thai I was hungry for yesterday. It wasn't the best Pad Thai I've ever eaten, but it was fresh and reasonably priced. It certainly beat having a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. I've become a fan of ordering take-out online and picking up the meal while I'm running errands in the neighborhood. If you pick the right restaurant, there is virtually no waiting. I'll probably go to this Pei Wei again. It seems a little healthier than the bacon cheeseburger I usually pick up when the refrigerator looks empty.

I was really hoping that the rain might end today, but the forecast shows that there will be more thunderstorms tomorrow and Saturday. I try to take a picture of something interesting every day, and I will admit that the rain creates interesting droplet patterns on plants. That's about all it's good for in my opinion. Rain also means wiping the dogs paws and cleaning my boots every time I come inside. It means an influx of cockroaches trying to get into the house. It means a dirty car. It means the dehumidifier has to work harder. And of course it means six inches of standing water on the roof. I hope my regular readers will bear with me. You've probably been listening to my rain rants every Spring for many years now.

The trash has been taken out to the curb. The wet clothes are all dry again. The dogs have had their evening meds and been outside to pee one last time before going to bed. All I have to do is brush my teeth and this day is over.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2276

We survived the rain. I didn't get much sleep last night, because every time there was a thunderclap, one of the dogs would wake up in a panic and start barking. Every time Dot barked, I kept thinking she was going to poop, but she didn't. There is no predicting these things anymore. Both dogs wisely chose to forgo their morning walk when it began raining even harder at daybreak. I thought Dash was going to explode, but after seven or eight trips to the back door, he finally decided that it wouldn't kill him to poop in the yard. With all this going on, breakfast took a little longer than usual. That was fine with me. There wasn't much else to do anyway.

When I turned on the pump this morning, it wasn't working. Against my better judgement, I climbed up on the roof to investigate and discovered that it had become clogged with debris falling from the trees. up. It's that time of year again. Oak trees flower in the Spring right before the leaves start to form. The small flowers, called catkins, are arranged in long drooping spirals that quickly fall off the tree and land on the roof. They are just the right size to totally clog the sump pump. I've burned up several pumps this way. At any rate, I cleaned the gunk out of the pump, got it working again, and since the rain had temporarily stopped, decided to stay on the roof and clear away the remaining water myself. It was a fairly futile gesture, since the rain started again almost as soon as I was finished, but it beat sitting inside and listening to the dehumidifier.

Dot had a good day at her physical therapy session. Maybe she had more energy today, since we didn't take a morning walk. After last week's disappointing performance, I was worried that the cumulative effect of the Paladia pills was making Dot too weak for her water therapy exercises, but she was fine this week. She did poop in the lobby as soon as we arrived at the vet, but that was a huge improvement over pooping in my car like she did last week. It was still raining when we returned home, but luckily the traffic wasn't bad today. Just about every aspect of today involved getting wet.

I'm getting bored with my diet again. I wish it wasn't so much trouble to cook Chinese or Thai food, because I'm getting hungry for Pad Thai. Unfortunately, it's way too much trouble to assemble all the ingredients for a quick dinner for one. I tried to make this dish a long time ago and quickly discovered that mixing together tamarind paste, fish sauce, rice noodles, bean sprouts, eggs, chiles, green onions, sliced pork, peanuts, and sundry other ingredients was way out of my league. It is much easier to just make a cheeseburger.

Maybe I'll have a cheeseburger tomorrow. I need to get my March invoices out and get started on my taxes. I need to do a lot of things, but if it keeps raining I'm just going to be cleaning up wet dogs.

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2275

As expected, we got lots of rain today. It was a good day to spend on the phone with tech support. For the second time in as many months, I found myself locked out of some of the websites I manage. In cases like this, the problem is usually the password. I didn't change the password. The client couldn't remember the password. And tech support wouldn't talk to me unless I had the password. I finally had to ask the client to ask for a password reset, so I could access the server. This didn't work either. After lots of back and forth, we finally discovered that the hosting company had changed the user ID for the site. Everything is fine now, but it won't be long before there is another password issue on another server. It's frustrating. I wish people would just quit trying to hack into things. Hacking forces hosting companies to continually keep changing their security protocols and it forces people like me to have to remember way too many complicated passwords.

The rain was pretty steady for most of the day. I had the pump on the roof running, the dehumidifier running, and the dryer all running at the same time. My clothes always get wet on rainy days, so I just throw them in the dryer as soon as I get back inside. With all three of these noisy machines running at the same time it felt like I was in the engine room of a ship. The rain eventually stopped, but it looks like tomorrow is going to be more of the same. People who like gardening love these Spring rains, but people with dogs usually don't. Dash is a magnet for mud on rainy days and Dot is difficult to dry off once she gets wet. Needless to say, even though work has slowed down, I still have plenty to do.

I'm enjoying the chaotic political primary season. The leadership of the Democratic party can't seem to put Bernie away and the Republican leadership is doing even worse with Donald Trump. I was pleased to see how well Bernie is doing in Michigan and equally pleased to see that the Republican leadership's efforts to destroy Donald Trump have seemingly backfired. I wonder if many people have noticed that these two very different outsiders have several important things in common. Both think that disastrous trade deals have decimated American manufacturing and destroyed millions of good jobs. Both also think it was a huge mistake to get involved in pointless wars in the middle east. As somewhat of an isolationist who has never been a big fan of globalization, I find it refreshing that so many people seem to agree with me. I think this is an important election. We will see once and for all just how much influence that the lobbyists and giant corporations have over our lives.

I think my efforts to eliminate wheat and sugar from my diet have failed. I did so well for almost three years eating Kale salads and avoiding bread. Now the kitchen is filled with all kinds of crackers again and I'm having ice cream for dessert. Why does unhealthy food taste so good? I still avoid fast food restaurants and try to always include a green vegetable with my dinner, but I'm slipping. I love cheeseburgers, pork ribs, and French toast. Broccoli and Kale, not so much.

Hopefully Dot's Wednesday therapy session will go better than it did last week. Last week she pooped in the car and got very tired in the underwater treadmill. Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2274

Instead of calling a plumber today, I tried to fix the problem myself. This isn't always a good idea, but I didn't think I had much to lose. My plumbing skills are so limited that I seldom even attempt anything that could cause real damage. I've been thinking that the garbage disposal in the kitchen has been making a funny noise, so I ran the disposal for a long time while flushing it with water from the sink. Eventually, the noise went away and the sink seems to drain normally now. There must have been something clogged inside the disposal. The slow shower drain took a bit more work. I unscrewed the cover to the drain and discovered that soap residue had narrowed the diameter of the drain pipe to about half of its normal width. I got a piece of metal and scraped away as much of this gunk as I could, while trying to make sure it didn't fall down the pipe and make the clog worse. After visibly widening the drain hole, I put the drain cover back on and took a shower. The shower worked just fine. I've either saved several hundred dollars in plumbing bills, or just postponed dealing with the real problem a few weeks. Time will tell.

The weather forecast said it was going to rain all day, but failed to mention that the rain would be intermittent. The intermittent showers proved to be a stroke of good luck, since it gave us time to walk the dogs and make sure they both pooped before settling in for a long damp day. I had time to take a few bills to the post office without getting the car wet too, so when the rain did arrive, it was no big deal. The dehumidifier has to work a lot harder on rainy days. I emptied the bucket twice today and even though the unit extracted a lot of water, it never was able to get the humidity below 40%.

I've been seeing ads on TV saying that if you have both AT&T U-verse and an AT&T wireless account, that you would get free unlimited data. Since I have both of these services, I though I'd do a little investigating to see why I wasn't already getting the free 4G data on my phone. I was not terribly surprised to discover that nothing AT&T offers is actually free. Sure, it was possible to have a phone with unlimited voice, text, and data, but you had to pay twice as much per month as I'm currently paying. Also, your data download speed was severely limited after you reached a certain threshold. At least I didn't have to go to the AT&T store to learn this disappointing information. Whenever I go to the store, they aggressively try to sell me one of their overpriced home security systems or convince me to add a second phone to my wireless account. I'm not a big fan of the phone company. Probably neither are you. We all depend on our phones these days, but I've yet to meet anyone who actually liked dealing with their wireless provider.

I thought I'd get started on my taxes today, but that will have to wait until another day. It's amazing how little I get accomplished on grey, rainy days. The dogs don't like the rain and neither do I. We'd better get used to it though. It looks like the rest of the week is going to be even worse than it was today. For those of you who think I'm always too negative, there were no accidents in the house today. Dot pooped outside in the morning and after dinner. That's today's little ray of sunshine.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2273

I'm not sure that going to the gym made much of a difference. You can't get in shape with once a month workouts. Today's visit was more of a symbolic gesture. Maybe it was my way of saying "don't count me out yet." I did all my routines faithfully, elevated my heart rate, and worked up a sweat, but I'm still going to have to do this three times a week to make any real difference.

All I could think about today was the weather forecast. There are supposed to be thunderstorms every day next week. I really hope this isn't true. The combination of rain on the roof, mud in the yard, and dealing with a storm phobic crippled dog will test my sanity. It takes forever to get Dot to pee in the yard on a good day. In stormy weather, it's hopeless.

It's getting warm enough to call the landscapers to come back and replace the grass, ground cover, and bedding plants that died during the winter. We do this every year. Apparently neither Janet or I have anything remotely resembling a green thumb. This year, the yard looks even worse than usual because months of walking behind Dot and holding up her rear legs while she smells things and looks for a place to pee has killed a a significant percentage of the Asian Jasmine and Liriope. This happened once before when an earlier Dalmatian grew old and required assistance. It took at least three years for the ground cover to recover and start looking decent again. Apparently, dogs, cats, possums, and raccoons can walk through ground cover with impunity, but when people start tramping through the stuff, it dies.

I always listen to Ted Talks on the radio while I'm driving to and from the gym. The Ted Radio Hour on Sunday afternoon is probably the best thing on PBS. Today's subject was laughter and after listening for about five minutes, I turned the show off. I just couldn't relate to it. This is probably not a good sign. I can't recall that I've ever turned off a Ted Talk before. If the subject was sadness, the vastness of the universe, or preparing for the day the robots take over, I probably would have been fascinated.

The house smelled good today. Janet was preparing pulled pork in the slow cooker and the pork roast she was cooking gave the house the aroma of a nice barbecue joint. Pork has always been my favorite meat, but I am very conflicted about it now. I love bacon, ribs, and center cut pork chops, but every time I see a picture of a cute little pig on Facebook, I feel vaguely guilty. Damn you Facebook. All you do is destroy my faith in humanity with an endless stream of mindless memes, political rants, and cute pictures of piglets.

After I took that one watch to the watch repairman last week, I've been noticing that many other watches are running slow, are hard to wind, or have simply stopped running. What was I thinking when I thought it would be fun to collect watches? If I'd given the matter any thought at all, I would have realized that my compulsion to repair things and the inevitable nature of mechanical things to break would soon be at odds with each other. It has become impossible to keep all these old watches running, and even if I had the time and money to keep fixing them, it would just be another quixotic gesture.

I vacuumed and cleaned the house today, so this virtually guarantees that Dot will poop in the house tonight. I've tried again and again to get her to do her business outside this afternoon, but she isn't ready yet. Such is life.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2272

I think I'm going to have to call the plumber again. In one end of the house the kitchen sink drains slowly. In the other end of the house, the shower drains equally slowly. This probably means that the entire waste water line needs to be snaked out. I'm always nervous about doing this because the cast iron pipes are fifty years old and the rotating snake that is used to clear debris can also damage the pipes. After our last plumbing disaster, I don't want any more plumbing problems under the slab.

I guess I'm tired of problems in general. I'm forgetting things that I always used to remember. My business is slowing down. The house is falling apart. The dogs have become very high maintenance companions. My own body no longer cooperates with me. It's tiring. I go to bed tired and I wake up tired the next morning. The golden years are a myth. Maybe the notion of a comfortable, carefree retirement has always been a myth for most people. My parents certainly didn't have an easy time of things as they got older.

I certainly don't expect a politician to fix things. When I listen to all the promises from the current crop of candidates, they just sound pathetic. Don't these folks realize that the country has essentially become ungovernable? We have allowed ourselves to become so polarized and divided that we are just a bunch of tribes pretending to be a unified country. People's loyalties are to their tribe these days, not to the country as a whole. I'm not sure this can be fixed. Whoever wins the upcoming election will face a large and vocal group of people on the other side trying to block everything they do. My tribe will probably end up just being the other old people. I'll vote for anyone who promises to strengthen Medicare and Social Security and cut my taxes to zero. Lofty speeches about making the country better for our children will go in one ear and out the other because I don't have any children. I'm sure young people with children will think differently.

Dot had a few accidents in the house today. These accidents have become so frequent that cleaning up poop has become just like dusting or vacuuming. I can't even remember any more whether we're having an accident free day or not. It just seems like the washing machine is going constantly. I guess it's a good thing that I'm getting more efficient at cleaning Dot up and changing the rugs and bedding. Dot can't help her incontinence, so there's no point in getting upset about it. 

All in all, it was just a normal Saturday. The dogs got taken care of. I went out and got some groceries. I did a little cleaning and wasted too much time looking at Facebook. I was mildly interested in tonight's election results, but only mildly. Tomorrow, I'll probably go to the gym. I've run out of excuses for avoiding the place.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day