Day 2353

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Janet told me this morning, "but the sink is still leaking." I looked under the sink, and sure enough, she was right. The leak was small, but it shouldn't have been there at all. When two plumbers spend the entire day at your house, you'd think they'd check for leaks before they leave. I'm beginning to think it is totally impossible to get something done right the first time. I called the plumbing company and made another appointment. I tried to get some type of assurance that there would be no charge for this visit, since it was the brand new hardware the plumbers had installed just a few day ago that was leaking. "We can't promise anything," the dispatcher told me.

My service guy at the Land Rover dealership called this afternoon to tell me my car was ready. He seemed pleased that he and the service manager had been able to shave almost $800 off my bill. I thanked him for looking out for me and then asked what I still had to pay. "Oh, you'll only owe $2,100 now," he said. Jeez, give me a break. This car is still under warranty. I hate to think what's going to happen when the warranty runs out.

I'm still having problems with my Internet connection, so I called AT&T tech support again. I talked to somebody who was quite knowledgeable the other day, but I wasn't so lucky this time. Why do these big companies have to outsource their tech support to countries where English is a second language. I couldn't understand this guy at all. The conversation became so frustrating that I told the guy that I'd just call back and try again later with a different agent. He persisted in asking me a bunch of questions that had nothing to do with my problem, so eventually I just hung up on him. Two minutes later, the guy calls me back and continued to read from his script. I couldn't believe it. I had to hang up on the guy twice.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy appointment because I didn't think I was going to have a car tomorrow. Now that I have the car back, I debated whether to try to reschedule the appointment. I decide to leave things alone, because Dot has to go back to the cancer center for another ultrasound scan on Friday anyway. One car trip this week is probably enough. Dot seems to be enjoying her lighter schedule, but I don't want her to get any weaker than she already is. We'll go back to therapy next week and have her vet reevaluate her to see if she's still strong enough to continue the water therapy at all.

It wouldn't be a normal day if I didn't have battery problems. Since I've been having issues with my U-verse service, I've been using my little T-Mobile WiFi hotspot a lot. Last week the battery died and I have to use the unit plugged into an AC outlet. The hotspot is only about four years old, but the battery has already become almost impossible to find. I finally located a supplier who said they could special order me a replacement cell. I felt good that something had finally gone right today, but even this small success shouldn't have been so difficult.

Work has become so slow that I'm beginning to wonder whether my clients are reading the blog and have collectively decided that they want a happier person to work on their accounts. Truthfully, I'm too tired to care. All I want right now is a good night's sleep and a poop free day tomorrow. I'll probably get neither.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2352

There have been better days. The suspension problems on my car that I was almost certain would be a warranty repair are not a covered item. "I'm not believing this," I said. "You fixed the suspension problems on the right hand side of the car under warranty a few months ago, and now you not going to fix the left hand side when it's exactly the same problem?" "We only replaced the air bladder last time," my service guy said.  "Now, we've got to replace the air bladder and the strut." "So," I said. "The strut is a regular maintenance item like wiper blades and brake pads," the service guy said. "It's not covered." "You're telling me that a $1,200 part that is an integral part of the car is just a disposable item," I said incredulously. To make matters worse, the strut is only available as a kit with the accompanying air bladder, which I had gotten free last time. Apparently, you can get an air bladder without a strut, but you cannot get a strut without an air bladder. "Well, if this repair is going to be this expensive, don't do the regular maintenance check. I'll save that until next time," I said. "Oh, we did the maintenance check first," the service guy told me. "It's already done." Oh, did I mention that my homeowners insurance is due in a few weeks as well. June hasn't even arrived yet and I'm already broke for the month.

To add to my financial woes, my financial adviser called today in response to the letter I'd sent him last week. I think he is genuinely trying to resolve our problems, but we just aren't on the same page. When I told him that I would have been better off if I'd just put my money in a boring index fund and forgotten about it, he reminded me that it was me who wanted to buy individual stocks to try to get a better yield. There have been so many bad decisions over the years. Some of the decisions are mine. Some of them are the brokers. All I wanted to do was get back to even after the huge market meltdown in 2008. I've been trying to claw my way back at a time when the market has been more volatile than at any point in recent memory. I have friends who gave up on stocks after the crash of 2008 and put their money into gold, only to watch gold prices tumble. I know other people who put their faith in real estate, only to discover that real estate wasn't a sure thing either. We live in a world where there are no sure things anymore and I only think it's going to get worse.

Dot had quite a few accidents today. Most were easy to clean up, but the incontinence is really getting me down. There is no cause and effect anymore between when I take Dot outside and when she actually poops. Her digestive system still works as it should, but she has little control over it anymore. It doesn't matter where she is. When something reaches the end of the line, out it comes.

I'm still having Internet connection problems. I never would have dreamed that I would look back at my old slow Mac tower, my friend's simple web server, and a single DSL line as the best of times. Things were so reliable in the beginning. I could often go a year without any problems at all.  Now it seems like I re-boot the U-verse router and call tech support at Bluehost almost every day. Nothing is reliable these days and it's wearing me out.

Maybe things will be better tomorrow. Somehow, I doubt it. The rain is supposed to continue through the end of the week. I'm not sure when my car will be ready now. I'm not sure whether to resume Dot's physical therapy either. One day she seems better and then the next day she's weak and tired again. We'll stick to the simple things tomorrow. If I can manage to get out of bed in the morning, we'll take it from there.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2351

If you ever want to take the pulse of today's millennials, just go to an REI sale. I stopped by the store's self named "biggest sale of the year" on my way to the gym this afternoon and was greeted by the biggest collection of 20 to 30 somethings I'd ever seen. They were all stuffing their Honda CRV's and Subaru Foresters full of bargain tents, hammocks, bicycles, yoga mats, and Fitbit trackers. All I wanted was a pair of shorts, but there was no express lane. It took me forever to check out.

When I arrived at the gym a few miles down the road, the contrast couldn't have been more striking. There were no hordes of young people at all.  All I saw were a half dozen balding old men who had traded their Subaru Foresters for a Porsche Panamera decades ago. Maybe this explains why there are so few young people at my gym. From the looks of things at the REI store, all the millennials are doing something outside.

I got an e-mail today saying that my recent transaction with Network Solutions had failed to go through. What transaction? I haven't purchased anything from Network Solutions in years. I did some checking and discovered they has reset the preferences on my profile so that all the domains I had registered with them would auto-renew by default. I know for a fact that I had set all these domains to not auto renew because I wasn't interested in keeping some of them anymore. How could they just reset the preference file to auto-renew everything without even asking me? Luckily, the credit card I had listed with them had expired quite a while ago, so the sale didn't go through. I think I'm going to move the domain registration somewhere else. I don't appreciate sneaky tricks like this.

I had big plans to catch up on household chores I've been avoiding, but the small things at the top of my list took so long that I never got around to the larger things near the bottom. I did manage to get a few things accomplished. I cleaned some boots that had gotten muddy a few days ago. I lubricated a sticking sliding glass door and got it so it would open again. I swept leaves off the front porch, and of course I cleaned up Dot's latest accidents. I know there's lots of water on the roof, but the new forecast says it is supposed to rain every day next week. It's not worth the trouble to mess with the roof until things dry out a bit.

I'm worried about Dot. She's sleeping longer. She doesn't have as much energy as she did a few months ago. And her incontinence is getting worse. I still can't decide whether to resume her physical therapy sessions this coming Wednesday. The decision may end up being made for me. My car is still in the shop and the loaner car I'm driving is too small for me to transport Dot comfortably. Dot is due for another exam at the cancer center later in the week. Maybe we'll be able to find out what's going on while we are there. I hope the tumor in her liver isn't growing larger. If the cancer is progressing rapidly, there isn't much we can do.

There is a big bowl of fresh peaches and bananas for my morning smoothies. I've washed and dried all the dog blankets. I'm temporarily caught up on all my website revisions. I guess I'm ready to start another week.

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2350

The mosquitoes are terrible this year. I must have been bitten a dozen times while we were walking the dogs this morning. Mosquitoes always seems to carry something nasty. Last Summer everyone was worried about West Nile Virus. This year it's the Zika Virus. Of course, the dogs always have to worry about getting heartworms from a mosquito bite. That's why Dot and Dash continue to take a heartworm pill at the first of every month. I wish there was a place where mosquitoes weren't a problem, but I don't think this place exists. Even when I was growing up in Alaska, there was a terrible mosquito problem in the Summer. I don't know how you get rid of the insects without harsh chemicals. We've tried UV bug zapper lights that didn't work very well. One year we had a weird contraption in the back yard that generated a cloud of carbon dioxide gas that was supposed to cause the mosquitoes to move elsewhere. It didn't work at all. There is an organic spray that isn't toxic to the dogs that you can apply with a garden hose. We tried this last year and it worked well until the first big rain washed it all away. I'm not sure what remedy I'm going to try this year, but I'm sure I'll try something. I'm tired of getting bitten by the little beasts.

Today seemed more like a work day than a Saturday. I spent the morning completing a major website update involving adding 73 new pictures with captions. I probably could have waited until Monday to finish this update, but I knew that I'd enjoy Sunday a lot more without a deadline hanging over my head. It took a while to make all the changes, but the job is done. Now I can spend the rest of my weekend vacuuming, cleaning up dog poop, and other fun things.

Butter was on my grocery list today. I always get butter at Sam's Club because you save a lot of money buying in bulk. Unfortunately, I should have looked at the packaging a little more carefully before I made today's purchase. Instead of regular sticks of butter, I had gotten huge logs of butter that must have been meant for restaurants. Jeez, how was I to know. The packaging looked almost identical. I had to drive all the way back to the store and exchange the restaurant sized logs of butter for some regular sized sticks.

It took forever to balance my checkbook this afternoon. I used to do this routinely, but now I despise the task and only bother to straighten things out every two or three months. Inevitably, I discover that I've entered something erroneously in Quickbooks that causes a mysterious discrepancy, For a writer, I'm atrociously bad at typing. It typically takes me longer to proofread my articles than it does to write them. Finding math errors I've made takes even longer. If I had more money in the bank, I wouldn't even bother to balance my checkbook at all. Tracking down missing pennies is a waste of time.

I think I could write a book on the nuances of cleaning up dog poop. As Dot's incontinence has gotten worse, my cleanup technique has gotten better. Things that are hard to clean like carpets must always be protected. There are lots of small rugs now that can be thrown in the washing machine after being hosed off outdoors. There are lots of comfy acrylic dogs blankets that can be washed over and over again. Under the blankets are rubberized pads, in case she pees as well. When Dot goes to sleep, I lift up her butt a bit and slide a disposable puppy training pad underneath. If I'm lucky, I can slide the soiled pad out, roll it up and throw it away, without even waking her up when she poops in her sleep. I buy these disposable pads in 100 count boxes now. That's what life has become.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2349

Sometimes I hate the Internet. For several days I've been having trouble connecting to some of my clients websites. My Internet Service Provider says the problem is being caused by the hosting company and the hosting company says the problem is being caused by my ISP. Neither side will admit that they are the reason I can't connect to at least a dozen websites, including my own. I suspect that my ISP is blocking several servers, but they won't admit blocking anyone, despite the fact that it appears to be common knowledge on Google.

I get tired of messing with the problem and switch to my alternate Internet Service Provider. Now, all the missing websites reappear, but within minutes I get an e-mail saying that an unauthorized person is trying to access my Google account. I change my password twice, but can't seem to shake the mystery person trying to login from Denver. I start to think I've got a virus and run all kinds of searches for Malware on my computer. I turn up an odd invisible cache file in my Firefox browser and delete it. The problem seems to go away and then I am mysteriously able to reconnect to everything using my primary ISP. I finally track down the IP address of the unauthorized computer in Denver and begin to suspect that it is my own account. Now, I'm really confused. It appears that AT&T blocks my web server occasionally and T-Mobile connects me to the Internet in Denver instead of Dallas for some unexplained reason. I'll never remember my new passwords. My best guess now is that I wasted hours and hours trying to track down an intruder who was actually me.

I'm starting to get some of my most complicated website update assignments on Friday afternoon. It's been this way for the past month or two. This means that I have to work during the weekends, even though I often have nothing to do during the week. I got started on one of these updates this afternoon, but didn't even come close to getting it finished. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow. Hey, the client is always right, but it sure would have been nice if I could have done these updates last Tuesday.

I went back to the hipster restaurant this morning. I'm really just floundering around now. My well oiled Friday breakfast ritual appears to have crashed and burned. I have lots of place to eat, but I no longer have a special place that knows me so well that they start cooking my meal the moment I walk in the door. That's what I liked best before everything changed. I could just walk in, sit at my favorite table and didn't even have to talk. The staff just knew what I wanted.

My car was supposed to be ready this afternoon, but the dealership called and told me that it wouldn't be ready until sometime next week. I shouldn't have been surprised, since delays like this used to be commonplace. I had one speedy repair a few months ago and thought that everything had changed. Silly me. Nothing really changes. My broker wants to talk. I suspect this means that he didn't like the letter I sent. I'm kind of dreading this talk because I know he'll still try to convince me that the stocks he likes are a good investment. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. I'm just getting sick of the stock market in general.

I can't really tell if Dot is getting stronger or not.  She appears to have more energy now, but we're only walking her half as much as we were a few weeks ago. Change can be deceiving if it happens slowly enough. Do I set the bar lower with Dot, or do I gradually try to increase her activity again? Do I change brokers or try harder to understand his strategy? Did I get hacked today, or am I just brain dead? Sometimes it's hard to know these things.

Harley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2348

You can never ignore Murphy's Law when you hire a plumber. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Somehow plumbing problems always end up being more difficult than they first appear. I was well prepared today. I had all the parts necessary to rebuild the leaking bathroom faucets. The only original part I had planned to reuse was a brass valve under the sink that the plumbing supply guys said was indestructible. Unfortunately, the sixty year old parts were so corroded that they were frozen solid and virtually impossible to remove from the porcelain body of the sink. While trying to remove the old faucets, the plumber broke the indestructible valve under the sink and we had to start over from the beginning. I took all the parts I bought yesterday back to the plumbing supply store and purchased a brand new faucet set that I hoped would fix.

I thought everything would be a piece of cake at this point, but the old brass water spout in the center of the sink was even more frozen and corroded than the faucets. I cut my hand trying to help the plumber remove the spout. The plumber, who was underneath the sink, cut his hand even worse. He also ended up having a small porcelain chip fall in his eye. We ended up having to saw the heavy brass spout off using a special metal saw. The important thing at this point was to not break the porcelain, because the plumber said the old basin would be impossible to replace. Eventually, the plumber realized that the sink had the upper hand and called a second plumber to come help him.  The two plumbers spent the rest of the day wrestling with the sink and eventually prevailed. I now have a very nice, and quite expensive, working sink.

Not surprisingly, Dot didn't like all this activity and ended up pooping fives time in the house. Trust me on this. Cleaning up after in incontinent dog is much more difficult when there is no running water in the house. We had to shut off the water to the entire house for most of the day, because the old sink had no shut off valves. By the end of the day I had a huge pile of smelly dog blankets and rugs sitting out in a pile on the back porch, waiting for the water to return so I could hose them off before throwing them in the washing machine.

This was a very expensive day. Before meeting the plumber, I dropped my car off at the Land Rover dealer for a required major service. There is a suspension problem that should be covered under the car's warranty, but the service maintenance is always on my dime. I love my car, except for those days when I have to pay for a major repair. The plumbing and car repair bills were enough for one day, but when I got home the was a call from the guy at the audio repair shop with an estimate of what it would cost to rebuild the second old tape recorder I'd taken to them. Yep. This recorder is going to cost just as much as the one I took in last month. All in all, not a good day. I really need to find a well paying job again. Maybe I should become a plumber.

Oh, did I mention that it rained today too and that the Internet has been down for most of the day. I had thought about putting the dogs beds out on the porch while the plumbers were working, but they are both scared of thunder and wanted nothing to do with going outside. All is well that ends well I guess. I now have a sink that will outlast me and hopefully nothing else in the house will break for a few months. Dot has finally calmed down and is resting peacefully. All I need to do now is figure out a way to upload this post without a working WiFi connection.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2347

It has been unseasonably cold this month. When I wake up on a damp, grey day like today, it's easy to imagine that I'm still living in Seattle. I'm not a fan of dreary, wet weather, but the cool mornings have definitely been beneficial for Dot. It's easier to take our limited walks in the morning when we don't have to worry about the heat. Dot seems to be getting back to normal, but each new normal plateau is a little slower and more debilitating than the one before. Maybe next week we'll try water therapy again. It would be easy to just give up at this point, but I think we've got to try.

I rescheduled the plumber to come out and fix the leaking faucets and made a mental note to take my car in for service tomorrow morning. Oddly, on this day last year I was also planning to take my car in for service in the morning and thinking that Dot was getting back to normal even though she was already in decline. I need to be careful about reading old blog posts. It can be unsettling to realize how completely monotonous and repetitious my life has become.

Since it was a slow day and I wasn't in a very good mood, I wrote a long letter to my financial adviser detailing why I was so unhappy with my portfolio's performance. It was pointless to write this letter, since my broker is who he is and isn't going to change just because I don't agree with his investment strategy. A normal person would just quietly find a new broker, but I'm not a normal person. I'm a writer. In almost every aspect of my life, I feel compelled to have the last word.

Dot was always an independent dog, but she is becoming increasingly needy. At certain times during the day she will whine or bark if I don't come and sit next to her until she goes to sleep. I guess this is inevitable. The dogs have always depended on us for food and shelter, but now Dot depends on Janet and I for everything. She can't even get up or walk without our help. I try to be as unobtrusive as possible when assisting her. I remember during my Dad's final days, the thing he hated losing the most was his independence. I'm probably not the world's best caregiver, but I think that everybody should be able to keep their dignity as they age. Some day I'm going to be in the same situation as Dot. It can 't be easy when you are pooping all over yourself and can't even get out of bed in the morning.

I'm starting to see fresh peaches in the stores again. This is always a good sign. When I first started making smoothies for breakfast, peaches were my favorite ingredient. I've been having smoothies for breakfast for over a year now and it's important to have a little variety without deviating too much from the basic concept. When I started writing the blog, I was making elaborate and very creative omelettes each morning. Then, when I was being treated for Hepatitis C, I switched to hot oatmeal for a year or so. After I was cured, I went back to bacon and eggs for a while and then realized I had grown tired of cooking. I started eating granola with fresh fruit, but never really liked to idea of cold cereal for breakfast. The smoothies started shortly after we got the Vitamix machine. Fruit smoothies with a real breakfast on Friday has worked for quite a while now.

I'm seeing so many bunnies in the park this Spring. The coyotes in the neighborhood must have moved on, because I've never seen this many rabbits before. Like the peaches I'm starting to see, this is another good sign. I'd much rather have bunnies for neighbors than coyotes.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2346

I'm convinced that waiting for service technicians must be one of the circles of hell in Dante's Inferno. No matter when you schedule things, the repair people are never on time, and when they do finally arrive, the part you need the most isn't ever on the truck. I thought today's plumbing repair was going to be a simple job, but I should have known better. When the plumber finally arrived, he took a quick look at the leaking faucets and told me that simply replacing the washers wasn't going to work. The fixtures had corroded so badly that he recommended replacing the entire assembly. I thought the plumber would go and pick up the parts himself, but he suggested that it would be better if I do it. "I'll probably pick up something you hate," said the plumber, "and even if I do find the right parts, I'll have to mark them up 40%. OK. You convinced me. I drove down to the plumbing supply store and looked at the faucets he recommended. I didn't like either of them. I took one of the handles from the old faucets with me and the owner of the store recognized it and said he had all the parts to completely rebuild my current faucet. This seemed like a better solution to me, since the newer faucets didn't look like they would fit anyway. I bought $90 worth of faucet parts and returned home to reschedule another appointment with the plumber. The dispatcher told me that someone could come out again toward the end of the day, which sounded much better than waiting until Friday. I waited and waited, but the plumber never showed up.

When you are waiting for a repair person, you can't run to the bank, or walk the dogs, or even take a shower, because that's always when the repair guys will arrive. If you cancel everything and wait patiently, they will never show up. If you figure that they're going to be late anyway and decide to run a quick errand, they'll be in your driveway in ten minutes. At any rate I have all the parts now.  The next step is to get another plumber to come out and tell me that I bought the wrong parts.We'll have to go through all the barking again too. The first thing that Dot did when she saw the plumber this morning was poop all over the place.

The sink will eventually get fixed, but I'm betting that something else will go wrong before the job is finished. At least I had something to do while I waited today. Since I wasn't able to leave the house for a large part of the day, I was able to complete one of my increasingly rare writing assignments. Hopefully, I'll have another assignment when the plumber returns. It will help to pay the plumbing bill.

The weather forecast has been wrong almost every day this week. It was supposed to rain today, but the weather was actually pretty nice.  Dot did well on her short walk this morning. I think a week of reduced activity is helping her.  I could use a week of reduced activity myself. I'm perpetually tired these days. Maybe tomorrow will be my day of rest. There certainly isn't much else on the schedule at this point.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2345

I find dealing with money very frustrating these days. People want to pay me less than they did ten or fifteen years ago, while the cost of everything I use in my daily life is going through the roof. Everything is topsy turvy. Interest rates are near all time lows, but the the purchase price of a home has gone through the roof. Interest rates were over 14% when I bought my first home, but it wasn't a problem because the homes themselves were quite affordable. Cars were a bargain. I remember when you could buy a new Porsche 911 for under $8000 and a cool looking Jaguar E-Type was even less. The stock market was kind to me when the Dow was under 8,000. Not anymore. This is why I hate meeting with my financial adviser. I don't want to listen to complicated schemes to tame today's increasingly volatile market. All I want to do is go back to the early 1970's when I was a young copywriter making a paltry salary but still seemed to have more left over at the end of the month than I do today.

I didn't feel very comfortable taking any of my broker's suggestions this afternoon. I have a gut feeling that things are going to get a lot worse no matter who wins the election. We are in uncharted territory. People are voting for Hillary because they hate Trump and voting for Trump because they hate Hillary. Nobody actually likes either candidate. I think the political system has failed us if the best we can come up with for presidential candidates are two of the most disliked people in history. Can't we do  better than this? Maybe not. We complain that all the jobs have disappeared, but we still want cheap stuff made in China. People in Dallas complain about illegal immigration but still want to keep their gardeners and yard guys. You can't have it both ways. I didn't have an iPhone in the 1970's, but I had a Walkman and everything was fine. Maybe you like the way things are today, but I'd prefer to go back to the days when you could buy a new Porsche for $8000 and the most expensive house in town was less than $50,000.  I'm sure my attitude is infuriating to stockbrokers and financial advisers who are trying to get me excited about today's latest rabbet hole to jump down. I'm sorry guys. Today's investment opportunities suck.

I broke down and called a plumber today. The leak under the bathroom sink has gotten worse and I'm not ready to remodel the entire bathroom just to fix it. I'm prepared to hear that the fixtures in the sink are too old and that it's a waste of money to repair them, but what are my alternatives? Modern faucets won't fit in the old sink and a new sink won't fit in the old bathroom. The plumbers will complain, but I'm confident that they will be able to fix the leak. That's what plumbers do, isn't it?

I think I'm going to skip Dot's physical therapy for an additional week. She seems to be enjoying her lighter schedule and is slowly regaining some strength. Maybe we were just pushing her too hard. She's probably not walking enough right now, but the goal will be to slowly get her back to where she was before. I wish the underwater treadmill wasn't so far away. The water therapy is good for her, but a long ride in the car isn't. I have a feeling that transporting her to and from the vet canceled out some of the benefits of the therapy. We'll be back though. Dot's not a quitter and neither am I.

Dash and I walked past a big patch of wild ornamental onions today. I don't think these are the type of onions you eat, but the bees seem to like them. Some people call these flowers Allium. Others call them chives. I've been walking past this patch of wild onions for many years and watching them bloom every May. I wish the stock market were this reliable.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2344

I was listening to the TED Radio Hour on the way to the gym this afternoon and the topic was Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs. The theory is that there is a hierarchy of human needs and that the most basic needs must be satisfied before you can move up the pyramid to the next level. I forget who was talking on the TED stage, but he caught my attention when he said that the foundation of all human needs was a need for sleep, illustrating his premise with all sorts of bad things that happen to people who don't get enough sleep. Next up the list was a basic need for safety and security. When these needs were satisfied, the next level included a need to belong and share a sense of community. This was as far as I got before I arrived at the gym, but the talk was a little unsettling. If the foundation of a satisfied life was getting enough sleep, feeling secure, and having a sense of belonging to something larger than myself, I was screwed. I never get enough sleep, so maybe the illusive self-actualization at the top of the pyramid isn't in the cards for me.

I don't know if there is a hierarchy of dog needs, but Dot and Dash must be doing pretty well. Both of them get an enormous amount of sleep and must feel pretty secure since we take care of all their needs. Maybe this is why Dot still seems happy despite her many disabilities. On any given day, the dogs do seem happier than I am. They also seem to have a unique ability to live in the moment. I don't think that living in the moment was listed on Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. but it does seem pretty important.

We are nearing the peak of the wildflower season now. Almost every day when I take Dash on his longer "boy's walk," I see something new. Today I noticed that the Purple Leatherflowers have returned. This is a type of Clematis that looks like a small purple bell. I've always enjoyed seeing these flowers, but they don't last very long. It's too bad that Dot can't take these longer walks anymore. They are almost always the best part of my day.

Going to the gym will never be the best part of my day, but the experience is strangely satisfying for a guy that hates to exercise. When I'm on the treadmill, I gradually increase the angle of the machine, so that the end of my one mile walk, there is a neat little ascending ramp graphic displayed in LED lights on the treadmill's dashboard. I always turn the crank on the hand bicycle forward for one minute and then backwards for one minute until I've finished a mile on this machine too. It usually takes exactly twenty minutes. I try to shoot five baskets in a row from the free throw line on the basketball court. I've almost never done this, but sometimes I get pretty close. I never shoot until I hear a dull thud from dribbling the ball on a small dead spot on the floor. This invisible spot marks the perfect distance for me. All the machines have similar rituals. You get the idea. I like repetition and am a bit superstitious.

I did no vacuuming or yard work today. There's plenty of time for that during the week now. I did make some small website updates and added a third camera to the list that can now be controlled by a tablet or smart phone. There's actually a reason for adding WiFi capability to these cameras. At some point, I want to place a camera on a tripod in a corner of the yard near the bird bath were small animals congregate, so I can take pictures of them without scaring them away.

I have a meeting with my financial adviser tomorrow. I'm going to try to listen with an open mind, but I'm not a happy camper. Even in today's volatile and unpredictable market, I should be doing a lot better.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2343

Wouldn't it be nice if there was someone you could call who always had the answers you were looking for? I'm continually faced with situations where something should work, but just doesn't for some unexplained reason. Instead of asking a nearby knowledgeable friend, I am forced to spend hours searching the Internet for the advice of strangers. Today, I was having trouble getting a camera to connect to the WiFi network so I could control it from my phone. This shouldn't have been a problem in the first place, since I've done this many times before. Today it just didn't work. According to Google, lots of people seemed to be having the same the same problem, but opinions varied widely. Some people thought the camera was at fault. Others though the app on the phone was worthless because it hadn't been updated in our years. Then there was those who said that nothing was wrong at all and that their camera was connecting to WiFi just fine.

You have to resolve these problems through a process of elimination. Is there something wrong with the U-verse connection again? Did my latest IOS upgrade ruin all the older apps on my phone? Did I just not read the instructions correctly? After a lot of fruitless experimentation, I discovered that I needed to reboot my phone. I should have tried this first, since it seems to be the universal solution for all electronic problems. I am constantly rebooting the WiFi router, the DVR, the computers, the phones, and even the thermostat. Why are these connections to the cloud so fragile? I never had to do this five years ago.

Janet and I both think Dot is getting stronger, but I wonder if we are imagining things. The differences we are seeing are subtle at best. I've always believed in the placebo effect. If you really want to believe something, you generally can. Dot does seem a bit steadier this week. On the other hand, she is still senile and poops all over the place. I had a big mess to clean up last night, but strategically placed disposable pads are making the process easier. I don't think there's a lot we can do medically at this point. Instead, we provide a kind of doggie hospice care. We're not going to make Dot well again, but we can keep her happy.

It didn't rain as much as I expected today. Actually, it hardly rained at all. This doesn't mean that we've got clear skies ahead unfortunately. The long range forecast says it's going to be a wet and stormy week. We'll see. The forecast was certainly wrong today. Whatever is going on definitely appeals to the butterflies. I hardly saw any butterflies last year. This Spring, they are everywhere.

I suppose I'll go to the gym tomorrow. It all depends on whether I can go to sleep tonight. I'm ready. All I need to do is empty the water out of the dehumidifier, brush my teeth, and try to slip a puppy training pad under Dot's butt without waking her up.

Lady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2342

I returned like a prodigal son to my original Friday restaurant and was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd added several new items to the menu, hired a new waiter, and seemed to be surviving, despite the intense competition from the restaurant across the street. While I was finishing my Migas and coffee, I checked the pet cam I'd made out of an old iPhone and it worked perfectly. I was off to a good start. It was hard to believe it was Friday the 13. This looked like it was going to be a pretty good day.

Cutting Dot's morning walk in half seems to have made a huge difference. She doesn't seem as exhausted now, and is starting to get up on her own in the morning without assistance again. She is still weak and has a lot of trouble walking, but I can definitely see a difference. I wish the added rest had helped with her incontinence, but you can't have everything. Instead of pooping first thing in the morning, she is going at 3 AM now.  I have no idea why her bathroom habits aren't more consistent, but I sure wish they were. I had trouble getting back to sleep after last night's cleanup session and felt tired for the rest of the day. Work is so slow right now that I could just sleep all day with the dogs, but that would be giving up. I'm not ready to give up yet.

Since it was a nice relatively cool day, I decided to mow the grass and get this weekend chore out of the way. While I was working in the yard, I saw some city employees painting additional lines on the street like the ones I mentioned yesterday. I asked one of the guys what they were doing and he said they were locating water lines. "Does this means you are getting ready to tear up the street you just finished paving," I asked? "I just paint the lines," the guy said. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the city was getting ready to dig a big trench right down the middle of the road they just finished paving. That's how they operate.

Among today's list of website changes was a request to remove an offer precisely at midnight tonight. No problem. I'm usually sitting right here anyway. Work is still slow and fairly mundane, but there was a hint that more writing jobs may be headed my way soon. It would be nice to be busy again, since I'm stuck in the house anyway. Even though Dot sleeps most of the time, she needs someone nearby to help her up when she needs to move. I can usually tell when she is going to be asleep long enough for me to eat breakfast or go to the post office, but dogs can be unpredictable. I hate to come home and see that she's had to struggle to get out of her bed.

Even though it was nice today, the long range forecast still shows lots of rain ahead. This is a typical Texas Spring. Cool breezes are followed by hot dry days, which in turn are followed by violent thunderstorms. I'm always surprised when I wake up, because it is always different than the day before. There's a 50% chance of rain by sunrise tomorrow. I hope we get lucky and get the dogs walked before the thunder and lightning arrive. Life is much easier if the dogs are asleep when there's a storm.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2340

I knew today was going to be a problem. The HVAC guy wanted to come out at 8 AM to service the air conditioner. 8 AM is when the dogs normally eat their breakfast, so they are both active and energetic. Dot and Dash weren't in the mood to sleep through anything this morning. Dot didn't poop when we walked her around the block right after sunrise, so she was primed and ready to go. As soon as she started barking at the repair technician, there was poop everywhere. It is best if Dot is asleep when repair people are in the house, but this wasn't going to be one of those days. She got upset, stepped in the poop and tracked it all over the bedroom. Dash didn't help matters when he started barking too. He could care less about the repair technician, but he was mad that he had to wait for his breakfast banana. I always give the dogs half a banana when I make my morning smoothie, and they are not very patient about waiting. The technician eventually finished the system check and left. It took me the rest of the morning to clean up Dot's mess.

By the time I finished cleaning various rugs, carpets, blankets, and Dot's soiled harness, it was time for lunch. I have no idea what the HVAC technician actually did, because I was preoccupied washing Dot and cleaning up the huge mess that she had created. I hope the air conditioner doesn't give me any problems this Summer. It would be really frustrating to have gone through all today's carnage for nothing. One good thing about dogs is that they totally live in the moment. As soon as the repair guy was gone, life returned to normal. Dash got his banana. Dot went back to sleep. And I finally finished my breakfast, accompanied by the competing sounds of the washing machine, dishwasher, and dehumidifier.

When we were walking this morning we noticed that the city had painted a series of green, blue, and yellow guidelines on the streets in the neighborhood. I'm not positive, but these appeared to be location lines for underground utilities. It would be ironic that after literally waiting decades to get the streets fixed in our neighborhood, the city was just going to dig them up again. One of the streets with the utility location lines was repaved less than a month ago.

It was time to get the water off the roof again. I know it's probably going to rain again soon, but it's not wise to leave the standing water up there for too long. Whenever I'm up on the roof, I keep noticing that the areas that need to be patched are growing larger. I'll call the roofer again, but I'm not optimistic. My roofer has his own priorities, and evidently I'm not very high on his list.

I finished updating the firmware in all my cameras and lenses. It was surprising that so many things were out of date. I have lots of exciting new capabilities now, but since none of them are listed or described in the manual, I wonder if I'll ever use them. A month from now, I'll forget I even updated all this stuff.

There was a  car parked on the street where I usually put my garbage can on Thursday night. I had to put my can in a strange new place and now I wonder if the truck will pick it up. This is the kind of stuff I worry about. I can't decide where to eat breakfast tomorrow either. It's been that kind of day.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2339

The electricians came today. So, how many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? In the past, it has taken as many as three. Today, there was only one guy, but perhaps there should have been more. Things didn't go all that smoothly. The sodium vapor bulb has burned out, so we decided to just replace the bulb instead of the entire unit. Amazingly, Home Depot had these strange bulbs in stock, but the model the electrician selected turned out to be bad and he had to take it back. To avoid trying out bulbs all day, he suggested that I replace the sodium vapor lamp with a modern LED fixture. This sounded fine by me. Unfortunately, the only fixture the electrician could find was bright enough to light a tennis court at night. Then the guy's boss called and told him he was spending too much time looking for light bulbs and he needed to move on to the next job. The electrician left, but told me that he'd be back before dark with a light that worked. I didn't expect to see him again, but he was true to his word and eventually returned with a smaller LED fixture that worked. Hopefully, we won't need to do this again for a while.

Dot and I skipped our physical therapy session for the first time in over a year. I think the added rest is helping. She hasn't gotten much stronger, but she does seem a lot more comfortable.  Hey, it's only been two days now. I'm encouraged, even though the progress has been small. We only walk Dot around the block now. If she gets stronger, we'll gradually start increasing the distance, but I don't think she'll ever walk up and down the hills of her old route again. Since incontinence is becoming a bigger problem, I went to a pet store and got a giant box of puppy training pads. We put one of these disposable pads under her at night, so if she pees, it won't soak through the blankets.

My project for the day was turning an old iPhone without a SIM card into a pet cam. This phone was abandoned long ago when the battery went bad, but it still works when you plug it into a charger and it will connect to WiFi. Our regular pet cam won't reach the small area where Dot stays now, so I thought it was worth a try. I downloaded an app that turns your phone into a security camera and amazingly, it worked. Now, I have a camera that is small enough that I can put it right next to Dot's bed when I have to leave.

The other day when I was updating firmware on a camera body, I discovered that a lot of modern lenses have firmware too. I found several lenses that were out of date, along with detailed instructions on how to update them. After installing the new firmware in each lens, I'll have to admit that I can't see any differences at all. I suppose that the auto focus is smoother now or something. I didn't need to do any of this, since I tend to use the manual settings on my cameras, but this is what geeks do on a slow day.

I sent out my May invoices today. This was the smallest batch of invoices I've mailed in a long time. Sad. I miss the days when I was busy and headhunters were calling me every month to offer me a better job. I think there's a better chance of Dot jumping over a tall fence than of a headhunter calling with a cool job offer again. Dot is aging with so much grace and dignity. I can already tell that it's going to be more difficult for me. I need to ask Dot what her secret is.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2338

Today was Dash's day. Dot spends so much time at the vet that it's easy to forget that Dash has his own issues. We try to address each of those issues at his annual exam. For years, Dash was the problem dog and Dot was the healthy one. He has a history of epileptic seizures, but has been stable for almost five years since he started taking phenobarbital. When we adopted him, he had severe skin allergies. Now, his coat is thick and full. A thyroid deficiency and crystals in his urine are now under control. He still has a heart murmur, but his vet doesn't consider it a risk. Most importantly, his thyroid cancer has been in remission for over three years. Dash got a thorough checkup today and passed with flying colors. I am really thankful that he is doing so well. Several years ago, when both dogs were being treated for cancer at the same time, it was almost more than we could handle.

Dot and Dash are lucky to have some great vets looking after them. Sometimes I wish that vets could treat humans too. I'm convinced that I'd get bet better care if I went to the vet than I do from my own doctors. I trust our vets. I'm not so sure about my own physicians. Whenever I see a lobby filled with pharmaceutical company sales reps, I start to wonder if all the pills I take are actually necessary. To be fair, the dogs take a lot of pills too, but everything seems more honest and direct without all the insurance and pharmaceutical companies in the middle. I think one of the problems with human medicine is there isn't much emphasis on what we eat. When your vet tells you that your dog should eat a specific type of food, that's what you feed them. Humans go the the Cheesecake Factory, eat enormous, gut busting meals, and then wonder why they've got diabetes. Maybe we've got too much freedom. Dot and Dash just eat what we put in their bowls. If they had a choice, I'm sure they'd opt for an all bacon diet.

When Dash and I returned from the vet, the first thing I noticed was that Dot had pooped in her bed. I kind of expected this would happen. It was so hot when I took her outside after lunch that she had no interest in doing anything. It's impossible to get an incontinent dog's pooping schedule coordinated with anything. Basically, it's just like that old bumper sticker. Shit happens. Dot is feeling a little better today. We only gave her a short walk this morning and she spent most of the day sleeping. I canceled her physical therapy appointment tomorrow, so she can rest some more. Hopefully, the added rest will help. You can't be a drill Sargent with a sick dog. You have to let them set the pace. I know that Dot still wants to keep moving. We just need to stay aware of what her body can handle as she continues her long, slow decline.

Dash's big adventure at the vet ate up a big chunk of the day, but I still had time to resolve the equipment problems I was having yesterday. The audio and video gear are working together nicely now. Now that I understand what I'm doing, I wonder how long it will take to put this knowledge to use. You might wonder why I don't just embark on a long, complicated personal project, since I obviously have the time. I wonder too occasionally. I tell people that I can't make movies or write songs because I'm taking care of Dot. That's probably just an excuse. It's one of those been there, done that things. I just don't have the desire anymore.

I do like writing this blog. There's something epic about doing something for so many years, night after night, without any breaks in continuity at all. It's even more epic that I have absolutely nothing to say. My life is about as ordinary as you can get, and yet you're still reading.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2337

I hate feeling helpless. Dot continues to grow weaker and there is very little I can do at this point. I've tried everything I possibly can to keep her happy, motivated, and free from pain, but it's a losing battle. Cancer and a damaged spinal cord have taken their toll. The vets have no answers anymore when I ask what to do next to keep her strong. Maybe this is just a bad week, but I'm afraid that another disc might have ruptured. It's been noticeably harder for her to walk without assistance this week. She doesn't even try to get up very often. We were warned that this would happen eventually, but it's hard to accept that our indestructible girl might not bounce back anymore.

I'm always looking for answers, but we may never know exactly what has caused this latest setback. Dot is too weak for anesthesia, so we can't give her another MRI. An MRI is the only way to determine for certain whether another disc has ruptured or slipped. Something pressing on her spinal cord would certainly explain the current weakness in her legs, but it could be something else entirely. The cancer may have progressed to the point where is is causing her pain. There are several pain medications available, but they all have serious side effects. Dot's vet has encouraged us to try extended rest before resorting to something that will cause her liver to fail even faster.

Dash becomes depressed when Dot is sick. He has always been a nervous, frightened dog and has depended on Dot for stability. Without his constant companion at his side, Dash doesn't know what to do. Since Dot is sleeping, he just sleeps too. It's all kind of sad. I sit in a quiet house where the phone doesn't ring and my dogs and my career are slowly fading away. For the past two years, my life has been focused around keeping Dot healthy. For the most part, this journey has been a remarkable success, but it's getting harder now. Nobody lives forever.

I need to stay positive, because the next few months aren't going to be easy. Dot's urinary incontinence has returned, so now she pees and poops in her bed. Dot's body may be failing, but her spirits are still good. She barks when she sees a cat, eats her meals with gusto, and still looks forward to a morning walk, even though her legs won't take her very far. As long as she remains happy, I'll make any adjustments that are necessary. I don't know what I'm going to do when she loses the will to keep going.

Today was very slow. I made my morning smoothie, cleaned up poop, tinkered with the dehumidifier, and tried to make my self useful. I spend a good chunk of the afternoon trying to get a couple pieces of movie making gear to play nice together. I used to be able to solve these kind of problems by calling a few friends. Now, I spend hours making endless Google searches and sending e-mail to manufacturers. I think I solved the problem I was having, but I'll never know for sure until I actually use the equipment to make a movie.

I hope that giving Dot lots of rest today helps. If she wakes up a little stronger, we'll rest some more. I'm wondering whether we should skip physical therapy this week as well. I'll call Dot's vet and see what she thinks. All I know is that we're running on empty now and there isn't a gas station in sight.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2336 - Mother's Day

My Mom has been gone so long now that many memories are starting to fade. When she was alive, the medical community wasn't very familiar with bipolar disorder. She suffered from the highs and lows associated with manic depression for most of her adult life, but was never effectively treated. In her case, I think the cure was worse than the disease. Despite her violent mood swings, she led a rich and productive life, always encouraging me to be the best that I could be. She was very interested in the early civil rights movement and was proud of the letters she exchanged with Rosa Parks for many years. Mom tried to teach me tolerance, but she might not be pleased with what I have become. I'm not nearly as tolerant as she was. Memories fade, but every Mother's Day I'm left with a feeling that her life was cut short way too soon. The mood swings were frightening, but what the doctors did was even worse. From the time I was a teenager, I was determined not to suffer the same fate. In an odd way, that explains everything.

I've never had kids, so Mother's Day and Father's Day are not a big deal. Today, like almost every other Sunday, was a day for household chores and strenuous exercise. Amazingly, both dogs were content to sleep in this morning. I think they didn't realize it was morning, since it was so dark and overcast outside. Without the usually early morning barking, my fitness monitor informed me that I received 85% of a normal night's sleep. This is almost a personal best for me. We took a shorter morning walk than usual today, because Dot seemed tired and it looked like it was going to rain. I'm disappointed that discontinuing Dot's chemotherapy hasn't done anything to improve her strength. She does the best she can, but we may have to permanently shorten her walks a bit. She just doesn't have the strength anymore.

I'm not sure if I have the strength anymore either. I think the only reason I feel like I'm doing a good job at the gym is that all the other members are heart patients and can barely move. Janet doesn't like it that the men always leave the machines sweaty at her gym. I always tell her to come to mine instead. Most of my fellow members couldn't work up a sweat if they tried. For the most part, the machines look showroom new. I love this odd octogenarian gym. It's a great place to shoot baskets, because I'm almost always the only one using the basketball court.

I had a good workout this morning and then came home and vacuumed the house. I didn't bother to mow the grass or wash the car because it's just going to continue raining tomorrow. You might think it was a boring day, but I didn't. Today was fine. Dot was alert and in good spirits, even though I could tell she was feeling weak. Janet fixed bacon for breakfast and bacon is always good. It's a once a week treat that I'm hoping won't destroy my plans to keep my cholesterol low. I like to make an egg sandwich by putting an over easy egg inside a big breakfast biscuit and then adding a couple of slices of bacon. It's back to my banana and strawberry smoothies tomorrow, but these bacon and egg sandwiches sure are good.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. We are in the path of thunderstorms, so it will depend on how hard it rains. I'm starting to see lots of little Porcupine Mimosa's in the meadows now. After a rain, the number of wildflowers seems to double almost overnight.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day