Day 4194

I'm getting used to the new schedule. Dawn likes the early morning walks. Maybe she's always been an earlybird. I wouldn't know, because I'm definitely not. I'd sleep till noon if I could, but it's definitely worth the effort to get out of bed if it helps us avoid the heat. Dawn walks briskly before sunrise and then waits patiently for me to make the bed when we return home. She used to just hop on the unmade bed and refuse to leave. We're making progress.

I went back to the gym after breakfast. I think I prefer my long walks, but that really isn't an option until it cools down a bit. I try to add a few extra repetitions to my routine every day. I'm not getting as many steps as I used to, but I'm still burning the same amount of calories. I've still got a lot of work to do, but hopefully I'll be back to where I was a year ago in a reasonable amount of time. I'm surprised at how much stopping going to the gym for a year has affected my overall strength. Snooze, you lose I guess.

Janet and I went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday this evening. My birthday isn't until tomorrow, but it worked out better to go out to eat tonight. I was surprised to see that my favorite item wasn't on the menu anymore. I asked the waiter what had happened and she gave some sort of a Covid related excuse. This made no sense at all, but luckily everything on the menu is delicious. I ordered something else. We had a nice relaxing meal and pretty soon I will be one year older. The restaurant was full and everyone was acting normally. It was almost as if Covid never happened. The disease may still be an issue in some parts of the country, but it basically seems to be over in Dallas.

The replacement for my damaged iPhone case arrived today. It's been so long since I ordered this thing that I'd almost forgotten about it. I think the package came directly from China. That's the only way I can explain the excessive amount I paid for postage. I'm still using the damaged case. I don't think it's waterproof anymore, but I seldom get near water anyway.

I noticed that Dawn was limping when I took her outside after breakfast. I tried to look at her paw, but she wouldn't let me get close to it. It's a shame that Dawn is still frightened of me. Janet examined the paw when she returned home and found nothing wrong. Dawn isn't limping anymore, so I suspect that she got an acorn stuck between her paw pads. This happened frequently with Dot & Dash. If you have large Oak trees, your yard is usually filled with acorns.

I'm not wild about doing yard work on my birthday, but I've still got to cut down the remaining dead Photinia trees before the bulky trash trucks arrive to haul everything away. It's about time to mow the grass again as well. I have a feeling that I'll just wait until Sunday to tackle these chores. I seldom have a good excuse to avoid work, so I might as well take advantage of it. 

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3287

Since there is still rain in the forecast for Christmas, I thought I'd get the roof as ready as I could. I went to the hardware store and got a new hose for the pump to replace the current hose that had developed a kink. I thought the container the roofers left on the porch was some silicon material I could use to make emergency repairs. Unfortunately, it was just an empty container that they didn't bother to throw away. I thought there might be just enough elastomer material in the bottom of the bucket to fill the one remaining hole the roofers forgot. Jeez. I shouldn't be allowed near this stuff. I always make a mess. Even though I was very careful, I got some of the sticky silicon on my hands. I managed to fill the hole, but then later in the day I accidentally stepped in the still wet patch while I was changing the hose on the sump pump. I ruined a pair of cheap shoes and messed up my patch. Fortunately, there was just enough elastomer material left in the bucket to repair the hole again. I don't think I accomplished much, but at least I made an effort.

Dash had me worried today. For a while we wasn't putting weight on one of his rear legs. Did he tear an ACL? Has the neurological damage in his legs gotten worse? It was hard to tell. We got a treat he likes to see if he would follow us to get it. When we was distracted by the treat, he started walking normally again. We shortened his walk this evening and watched carefully to see if started limping. Dash did fine. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether we're pushing Dash too hard, or whether the exercise he's getting is beneficial. His condition is definitely getting worse, but he's going down hill slowly. We were dealing with a lot of the same problems last Christmas.

Last Christmas Dash was already having trembling spasms where he would start shivering violently for about ten minutes. The odd shivering spasms continue, but they haven't gotten much worse. His legs have gotten weaker, but he still does pretty well when he's moving forward. Dash has no reverse gear anymore. When he tries to back up, he falls over. The only thing that has dramatically changed during the past year is the incontinence. Dash is pooping all over the place these days. It's not all bad news though. We think the blood clot in his heart has actually gotten smaller or might have even disappeared this year. We have one more echocardiogram planned for January, just to make sure.

One benefit of my broken desk chair is that I have to sit up straight now. I have a tendency to lean back and slouch as I type, which is probably what broke the Aeron chair's tensioning spring in the first place. This new state of affairs may be great for my posture, but I'm definitely going to have to get this chair fixed. I'm a sloucher and my favorite chair just isn't comfortable anymore.

My financial condition doesn't feel very comfortable either. The stock market took another tumble today. It was a pretty dramatic sell off, considering that the market wasn't even open all day. I hope this downturn isn't as bad as 2007, but it's hard to tell at this point. There's certainly a lot of uncertainty in the world. I hope sanity returns in 2019, but I have my doubts. I spend so much time worrying about Dash and the roof that I might not even notice the apocalypse anyway.

Rain or shine, we're looking forward to a pleasant Christmas. Presents aren't a big deal anymore, but I'm still hoping that the roofers left me a gift. A roof that doesn't leak when it rains would be great. A dog that didn't poop in the bed on Christmas morning would be pretty nice too.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2224

Dot is feeling much better today. I think the she pulled or strained a muscle in her shoulder trying to get up, because lots of rest yesterday and a massage appears to have done her some good. Keeping the front legs strong when the rear legs start to go out in an older dog is always a problem. Dogs try to compensate for the weak legs by shifting weight to the front. Since they can't push themselves up from a sitting position using their rear legs, they try to pull themselves forward and up using their front legs. This puts a lot of strain on the shoulder muscles. Sometimes Dot's determination to move around on her own gets the better of her. She's not completely back to normal yet, but a day of rest really helped.

I installed the digital TV antenna I got the other day. It works, but it definitely wasn't what I expected. I thought the antenna would pull in ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and a few Spanish language stations. Nope. It received twenty-three of the weirdest stations I'd ever seen. None of these stations were on cable at all. How did these stations come to exist and who was watching them? There were three Vietnamese channels,  including one that seemed to originate from a nail salon. There was a station that played nothing but old episodes of Hill Street Blues. The over-the-air NBC affiliate was something called NBC Kids and played nothing but Saturday morning cartoons. QVC has a channel. There was a Catholic Spanish language televangelist and several channels that appeared to be nothing but ads. I was baffled. I guess this might be marginally useful when the cable was out, but not really. Another problem was that you had to set up your TV to receive either the antenna or cable. You couldn't watch both at the same time. Each time you switched back and forth, you had to run the set-up program to find available channels, which can often take up to fifteen minutes. I doubt that I'll return the antenna, but I doubt if I'll use it either.

I didn't make it to the gym today, but I did stay busy. I vacuumed all the dog rugs and carpets, which takes forever since it involves moving furniture, food bowls, dog beds, and the new dehumidifier. I guess I need to vacuum every week.  Two weeks was almost too much for the Dyson. The canister was packed with dirt and dog hair. I'll give the Dyson high marks for cleaning floors, but it's not very easy to clean when you're done. Old fashioned vacuum cleaner bags were so much easier than dealing with this weird transparent canister.

After I cleaned the house, I sawed up the big tree limb that fell earlier in the week into manageable sections and took the pieces out to the curb for big trash pickup. Tree limbs are quite heavy. If a loose limb were to ever fall on me or the dogs, we would be toast. When I look up, everything seems fine, but I still ought to get the tree trimmers to come out and remove anything that might be problematic.

With the tree and the rugs taken care of, I had a choice of a shower or a trip to the gym. I chose the shower. I can go to the gym later. I'd definitely had enough physical activity for one day. While I was waiting for Janet to come home so we could take the dogs on a short evening walk, I watched the Jason 3 launch on NASA TV.  This was another Space X launch were they were going to try to soft land the booster on a barge in the ocean. Once again, the barge landing failed. I initially wondered why they didn't just land the booster on dry land, since this worked so well the last time they tried. It turned out that they weren't able to get the complicated California environmental impact statement paperwork completed before the launch, so they used the barge again instead. Why would you even need an environmental impact statement to land a rocket back at Vandenberg Air Force Base? The whole base is full of old rockets and launch pads.

I'm really glad that Dot is feeling better. I know she's fragile and do my best to protect her from harm, but there is so much that is out of our control. All we can really do is give her the best care possible and continue to take things one day at a time.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2032

Dot did well during her physical therapy session today. We talked about what was causing her to limp and came to no firm conclusions. The vet agreed that the limp could be caused by a wide variety of things, including an underlying neurological problem, too much exercise, or the Palladia pills she's taking. I'm going to ask Dot's oncologist if it would be OK to discontinue the pills for a month after her next ultrasound scan. If there are no adverse effects from postponing the chemotherapy for a while, at least we could determine if this was the cause of her lameness. For the time being, we will decrease the distance she walks slightly, while still having her climb small hills each morning to strengthen her leg muscles.

I finally finished editing all the images for my client's multi-media project. We've got enough pictures now for a nice slide show or a short Ken Burns style movie. If they want a slide show, I'm going to try to convince them to get one of those little Chromecast streaming sticks and just link it to pictures in a Google album. I've tried this and it's a super easy way to make a quick, professional looking slide show. When you select the Chromecast stick as the input source on your TV, the Google photo album you select will end up being the default screen saver. I used to spend days creating lobby presentations for clients and the first time I tried using Chromecast, I had a great looking presentation up and running in less than five minutes. I never thought it would happen, but I'm I'm finally willing to admit that I don't really need a DVD drive anymore. Netflix, Chromecast, Apple Music, and a host of other cloud based solutions are just so much better.

I traded my Apple Watch for the larger model. Why? Who knows. Truthfully, probably the only reason I exchanged the watch was because I could. I was perfectly happy with the smaller watch, but I like this slightly larger version too. Really, they're both pretty much the same. Hey, it gave me something to do after I brought Dot home this afternoon, it didn't cost very much to upgrade, and now I've got a bigger watch. I'll have to figure out something else to occupy my time tomorrow.

The reason it's been a slow week is that my writing assignments have dwindled to almost nothing. I finally discovered why today. The person who sends me most of the writing assignments is on jury duty. She must have gotten selected for a trial because she's been out of the office for quite a while. At any rate, when I resume cranking out articles, I'm be just as busy as I ever was. I actually ought to be grateful for the opportunity to take a breather. It's been nice not having much to do for a while.

This week has gone really quickly. I'm looking forward to going out for breakfast tomorrow. It will be nice to eat in peace without two barking dogs on either side of me. I created a monster when I started feeding Dot and Dash a banana while I ate my breakfast. Now, if the don't get their banana, they bark and howl until I peel and slice one up for them. Are these dogs spoiled? Of course they are. I've got to figure out another way to deal with this breakfast commotion though. Dot is gaining weight again. With her weak rear lags, we've got to be especially careful about her weight. She really doesn't need to be eating bananas and extra kibble after she's finished her regular breakfast. I've thought about solving the problem by just going out for breakfast every morning, but then I'd be the one gaining weight.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2030

Dot is limping today. Her left rear leg has been a little weaker than the right leg for quite a while, but today she could barely put any weight on it. The limp seems worse when she first wakes up, so maybe she's sleeping on it wrong. When she circles around to change position during the night, she has trouble extending her legs after she lies down again. One leg often gets stuck under her body and I have to gently move it for her so she can relax and stretch out. I don't always wake up to do this when she wakes up though. Maybe the problem is neurological and has nothing to do with the way she sleeps. The doctors have always told us that some of her nerves may never grow back completely after the spinal injury. Maybe I'm exercising her too much. It's hard to tell. She walks better after she's been moving around for a while, but she's pretty frail. There's a fine line between getting enough exercise and overdoing things. Unfortunately, Dot doesn't know where that line is. Neither do I on many days. I'm doing the best I can, but this is not an easy rehabilitation.

When you get an Apple Watch, they give you two weeks to decide whether you really want it. At any time during the initial two weeks, you can return the watch and get your money back, or exchange it for a different model. Since my two weeks are just about up, I stopped by the Apple Store to see if I'd made the right decision. I have a small wrist, so I had selected the smaller 38 mm model. The watch fits perfectly and is about the same size as some of my favorite mechanical watches. Maybe I should have gotten the bigger watch though. Bigger frequently seems better to me. I'll always pick the biggest cheeseburger at a restaurant and I've never liked to drive a small car. You can tell that I probably didn't have much on my mind today. At any rate, Apple was out of stock of the larger 42 mm watch, so the decision was made for me. I should learn to stick with my initial instincts. They are usually right. Back when I was playing in a band, I would frequently trade guitars on a whim. Several of the initial guitars I bought turned out to be very collectible. The guitars I exchanged them for after I got bored turned out to be worthless. You should learn to trust your instincts and not be distracted by new shiny objects. I'm a Gemini though, so this is difficult.

I'm really curious to see what Pluto looks like. The NASA New Horizons mission is less than a week away from it's encounter with the ninth planet. This will be the last time that anyone alive today will get to see images from a brand new planet we've never seen before. We've already landed on or flown around all the other planets. We've even landed on a comet. It's amazing to me that Pluto is so far away that it take over four hours to send a signal to the spacecraft or receive a picture back from it. Even more amazing, in an odd way, is that the New Horizons spacecraft, along with all its sensors and cameras, is carrying a small container with the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930. I should have been an astronomer instead of an adman. I was never good at math though. I was always much better at convincing people to buy things they didn't need.

I don't know what I'm going to convince myself to do tomorrow. It's going to be a slow day. I'm just about caught up on converting the websites I manage to new, mobile friendly versions. My writing assignments have slowed to a snail's pace, although that could change at any time. My doctor's appointment got canceled tomorrow. Dash probably won't even want to take a long walk, because it's getting too hot. Maybe I'll fix myself an elaborate breakfast. Maybe I'll play the guitar. Maybe I'll just spend the day feeling ambivalent.

Delaney is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1378

We got off to a late start this morning, but it didn't really matter since the temperature has cooled down quite a bit. You never know what is going to happen with the dogs. Dash started limping today on the way home. At first I thought he had stepped on a thorn or a burr, but I could find nothing when I examined his paw. Since he was limping on his left front paw, I knew he hadn't torn his anterior cruciate ligament. Something was really bothering him though. We would walk about ten steps and the stop for a while to rest. It took forever to get home again. I thought about trying to carry him home, but he's too heavy to carry very far. Since Dot was with me too, carrying Dash was pretty much out of the question. Eventually we made it home and I gave Dash a Benadryl and called the vet. After a two hour nap, Dash got up and started walking normally again. I still don't know what was wrong. Maybe he got stung by a bee.

On the way to the gym this afternoon, I stopped by the dealership and got some rubber mats for the new car. Hopefully, this will make it a little easier to clean up the mountains of dog hair. Dog hair was never much of a problem when Dot and Dash rode in the Defender, since they always rode in the large dog crate I kept in the back. While I was getting the rubber mats, I discovered that I'm supposed to put nitrogen in my tires instead of air and that there is a special button that will lower the car two inches closer to the ground to make it easier to load packages, or large dogs.

So many people I know tell me how much they enjoy things like running, cycling, zumba, and weight lifting. I have yet to discover the allure of these sweaty activities. I think I have been successful at incorporating a regular exercise regime into my weekly activities. I just don't enjoy it. I'm still waiting for the endorphins to kick in and I suspect they never will. So far, going to the gym seems a lot like mowing the grass indoors. Don't get me wrong. I thing the exercise is good for my health and I'm going to stick with it. It's just no substitute for photography or playing the guitar.

Other than Dash's unexplained limping, it was a fairly normal day. I went to the bank and the grocery store. I got some website work finished that I should have done over the weekend. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be a busy day, so I guess I can postpone painting the ceiling a little longer. Every time I look up, I realize that the Sheetrock repairs I made a month or so ago won't be complete until I re-paint the ceiling. Since painting is right up there with exercise on my list of things I could do without, finishing this little chore could take a while.

Sage is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1354

I decided to make a kitchen cutting board today. You would have thought this endeavor would have involved a quick trip to Home Depot, or better yet, an even quicker trip to Bed Bath and Beyond for a ready-made cutting board. Nope. Nothing is this easy with me. We've had trouble with cutting boards warping or splitting apart in the past, so I wanted something that was impervious to water. I thought mahogany would be a good choice, because people make boats out of the stuff. I discovered very quickly that not many companies sell select quality mahogany lumber here in Dallas. Even fewer will sell you a single small piece of wood about the size of a cutting board. After much searching, I finally found a specialty lumber company that said I could look through their scrap bin and see if I could find a piece of mahogany that met my needs.

Too bad this odd little lumber company was a long way away.  I'm glad I still have the loaner car. My Defender would have never made the journey in this heat. School is back in session and the route to the lumber company was peppered with school zones. Throw a few broken stop lights in the mix and traffic just crawled along. Eventually, I reached the lumber company and found a nice looking piece of mahogany. I'm glad I wasn't building a boat. Select grade mahogany is a lot more expensive than I'd thought. Now I've got to sand the board, round the edges, and then cut an oval hole in the center so I can fit a small colander to drain food when I place the board over the sink. Alternately, I could forget all this and just use the board like it is.

It's always something with the dogs. When I was walking the pair through some tall grass, Dash let out a yelp and acted like something had bit him. I looked at his paw and found nothing. There were no cuts or abrasions and he hadn't stepped on a thorn either. When I extended his leg, there was no sign of pain or discomfort. I don't know what happened, but Dash limped periodically during the trip back home. The boy seems fine now. Maybe he's just a big baby.

I think most of my clients have already started their Labor Day holiday. Work was non-existent today. I didn't even have any website updates to do, which is rare for me. I'd like to tell you that I did something exciting with my free time, but all I've got to show for myself is a 10x21 inch piece of mahogany. I did try something new for breakfast though. That was nice.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1289

Dot gave me a scare this morning. As we were returning home from our morning walk, her rear leg gave out. I managed to catch her before she fell over, but I was worried that she had torn her ACL. A torn anterior cruciate ligament is a common injury with older Dalmatians and just about anything can trigger a tear. As I reached under Dot's belly to keep her from falling, I noticed that the leg that had buckled was stretched out behind her. This was unusual, since a dog usually holds their leg up when they have a limp. We sat and rested for about five minutes and then Dot just got up and started walking normally again.

Since today was Dot's acupuncture therapy day, I had the vet examine her leg when we went for our appointment. There seems to be no damage whatsoever.  Dot had definitely not suffered from an ACL tear. This was very good news, but I still wondered what had happened. The vet suspected that Dot had experienced a sudden leg cramp, which she said was not uncommon in older dogs. Although Dot seems fine now, I feel like there is now one more thing to worry about.

It was a slow day compared to yesterday. I still had some website revisions to complete, but I spent most of the day doing routine bookkeeping and organizing records. Since today's bookkeeping efforts had more to do with investments than with the business, there wasn't much to cheer about. The market sucks this year. Usually, when stocks go down, bonds, gold, or commodities go up. This year, there appears to be no safe haven. There are days when absolutely everything goes down together. Life was much simpler when you could just buy a six month CD and earn 8% while waiting for the market to turn around. Now, even real estate is a fickle investment. I don't think I will ever buy real estate as an investment again.

Janet had to work late tonight, so we didn't go to dog training class. Since it was another 100 degree day, I don't think the dogs minded skipping class. I guess I could take one dog to class when Janet is late, but I never do because the dog that gets left behind seems so disappointed. Even when I take one of the dogs to the vet, the other seems disappointed, and they don't even like going to the vet. I guess they're just like people. You always end up wanting what you can't have.

This month has gone really quickly. When I was scheduling Dot's next acupuncture at the vet's office today, I realized that next Thursday was the Fourth of July. I think we're invited to some sort of dog parade on the Fourth of July. Or maybe it's just a regular parade. I can't remember. Personally, I'd rather just go out for breakfast.

Derrick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1165

There must be some money in the neighborhood. When I left the cool restaurant this morning, I noticed that my car was parked right next to a brand new McLaren MP4-12C. What a beautiful car! I've seen plenty of Ferrari's in Dallas, but this was the first time I've spotted a McLaren. I was curious who actually owned the car, since everyone in the restaurant was dressed like a homeless person. I guess this just underscores how blurred the boundaries between style and substance have become. Any one of the disheveled looking guys wearing grungy wool hats and plaid shirts could have been a hedge fund manager or the star of a new reality series. Maybe the guy who owns the McLaren will give me a ride someday. I'd love to tool around the neighborhood in a 618 horsepower rocket that goes from 0 to 60 in three seconds.

Sadly, my "go-to" breakfast at the cool restaurant may soon be off limits. I ran the scrumptious concoction made with two over-easy eggs on a bed of spicy pulled pork, spinach and hash browned potatoes through my tracker app and discovered that this single dish contained 171% of my entire daily cholesterol allotment. I had always considered this dish a "healthy" meal too. Sad!

I finally got a new assignment that isn't due in two hours. One of my European clients has given me an entire week to write an article for them. Such luxury! I've also been asked to bid on a new video project. Things are looking up.

When I was walking the dogs this morning, Dot tripped on a rock and started limping. We stopped for a while and I gently massaged her leg. Within a few minutes she seemed fine again. Dot is getting old and it is sad to see her start to fade. She seems a bit fragile now. Dot is the most athletic Dalmatian we have ever had and it's going to be hard on her when she starts to lose her mobility. Aging isn't much fun, for humans or their pets.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 740 - Christmas

Dot woke up this morning limping on her left front leg. I'm not sure what's wrong, since she seemed fine when she went to bed last night. I think she just over exerted herself at our gift wrapping event yesterday. It's easy to forget she's getting older now. She spent most of the afternoon standing, instead of sleeping like she usually does. Maybe it was too much for her.

The furnace didn't come on this morning either, but by the end of the day we had heat again and Dot seemed to be walking more normally. It was a simple, but satisfying Christmas. I often feel lonely on Christmas. I don't have a lot of friends and am more or less estranged from family. I probably don't show my appreciation often enough, but I'm very grateful to have Janet and the dogs. They keep life normal.

It didn't snow this Christmas, but it certainly felt like Winter. I couldn't walk the dogs together this evening because of Dot's limp, but as Dash and I tramped through the woods, it was easy to imagine a coating of snow on everything. We returned to the smell of holiday cooking and an hour or so later everyone sat down to enjoy a delicious Christmas dinner. We had ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and a spicy stuffing. There weren't a lot of presents under the tree, but we don't need much at this point in our lives. I'm content.

I even managed to complete a few watch articles today. The month long writing marathon is almost over and it's not going to seem the same in January. I'll have to admit that I've learned a few things about watches and about writing this month. If I could only be this disciplined about personal projects. If I could work at the same pace on personal projects, I could have easily completed a novel by now. Personal projects are tough though. There just isn't a strong enough sense of desire pushing me onward. Maybe that's what I should have asked Santa for this year: a stronger sense of desire.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day