April 1 (Tuesday)
Sheba. How I loved that girl! She was a friend. I was her daddy. She and I have been together a long time. She is gone now, and I
shall miss her for a long time. In time I shall not grieve anymore, but Sheba will never be forgotten.
The online edition of the Daily Corinthian posted one of my photos today, and they included the link to my Historic Corinth website. The
website is a long way from being a complete work. I have time to work on it, just not a lot of time to take pictures.
April 2 (Wednesday)
Sheba! Will I ever stop grieving over you? I am so sorry, girl, that the end came for you in that way that it did. I am so sorry. It is my
fault. Did you know how much I loved you? Did you realize that I lived my life for you? Sheba! Oh, Sheba!
BP was way up at work today. I left early, and arrived home by 4:00. At home this evening, I finished up a task I was working on. Now I
shall see how things develop for tomorrow. If my BP is not better, I shall have to stay home for a few days -- at least until I get my BP
under control.
April 3 (Thursday)
Stayed home from work, but worked from home.
I did venture out briefly to get Cathy from the Vet. It appears that she is going to recover. She is still very sore, though. I was not well at
all today. My BP was way up. It settled down a bit this afternoon. I called my doctor, and he has changed my prescription. I had it
delivered because I was not feeling up to driving to get it.
April 4 (Friday)
Worked from home again today. I started my new BP meds today. Hopefully, I can see some improvement soon. I have monitored my
BP throughout the day, and it is not great. But it is down considerably from Wednesday.
I enjoyed spending some time with Cathy since she arrived home from the vet. She is a very, very sick little girl. She is quite sore from
her ordeal, and her muscles ache her terribly. She sleeps most of the time, and rarely shows much signs of life. But she is alive. She is
alive!
In between phone calls and putting out fires on work-related tasks, I worked on my fence-within-a-fence. I intend to not come home
anymore and find carcasses of dead animals lying around my house or yard. No more injured or maimed animals. No more of that. It
took the demise of my poor, sweet Sheba to get me off my duff and get something done around here.
Sheba. How I loved that girl! She took a piece of my heart with her, and I shall not soon recover from the injury to my own self.
April 5 (Saturday)
It is early Saturday morning, and a little cold outside. We have had a lot of rain lately. It has rained pretty steadily since last weekend.
Hopefully we'll get my fence finished today.
Cathy is in my lap as I type. She is still very sore and cries if she is just touched. I dare not let her out of my site. She will get locked
inside her cage if ever I have to leave anytime in the near future. The poor girl took a real beating, and it is fortunate that I found her
when I did.
Cougar appears to be much more frisky now that he has had some oral surgery. He bounces around and fights with the other kitties
(something he didn't do before).
April 6 (Sunday)
Blood pressure is way down, maybe too much. 122 over 74 with a pulse of 75. My pulse rate has been in the low 50's to high 40's, so
that is better. At least my BP is down from where it has been: 160 over 105, et al.
Larry and Andrew finished up my fence today. I'll post some pictures of the fence at a later date.
Tomorrow I shall return to work at Memphis. It will be good to get back into the saddle.
April 9 (Wednesday)
Monday was the worst day so far. BP was down, but the new meds had me in a real cesspool of degeneration. I left work around 2:30,
and hit the bed as soon as I arrived home. I woke up at around 5:30 am yesterday morning. I felt great yesterday, but so far today I am
feeling more like I did on Monday. We shall see.
Yesterday afternoon I took some photos of the dogs as they played in the front yard. Having the fence really eases my mind now. The
dogs have more room to roam, and the chances of their escaping the fence has been lessened.
April 11 (Friday)
I felt much better today. My blood pressure is way down, and the medication did not have as bad an effect on me. The medication does
make me feel light-headed and slightly nauseous, but the net effect is better.
I arrived home from work and once again spent time in the front yard with the dogs. Larry and Andrew did a good job on the fence, and I
am grateful for it. Watching the dogs run and play without fear of them getting run over puts a big smile on my face. I watched as Cathy
ran around in circles chasing the other dogs and being chased by them. A big smile on her face feels great.
I had a good day at work, and got some good programming done. I visited a book store on my way to the doctor on Thursday. I am not
a money-spender, and it has been several years since I bought a programming book, but I took one off the shelf and began reading,
killing a little time before going to the doctor. The book is about ASP.NET programming (ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008). I enjoyed what I was
reading so much that I bought the book. I shall probably never need to program in .NET, but I have enjoyed the book so far. A good
computer programming book is to me what a good murder mystery would be to some people.
April 13 (Sunday)
I cleaned up the yard a bit yesterday. I mowed the front area inside the fence. We have had a lot of rain recently, and the grass is very
green and a bit lush. Anyway, it is really pretty now. So far the fence is working to keep Sam and Oscar in. I am waiting for those two to
go over the fence, but I hope that does not happen.
April 14 (Monday)
Today turned out a bit cool. The weatherman has us expecting near-freezing temperatures tonight.
The dogs had a great jog around the front yard when I got home. The fence is serving its purpose. The dogs are in when I get home,
and they have plenty of room to run and jump and play and chase each other.
Cathy is much better. She still has some hurt feelings, but she runs around some with the other dogs. She is going to be okay.
April 16 (Wednesday)
Been a busy day so far at work today. Weather is warming up. Dogs are doing okay. I still worry all day long about the dogs and the
cats. Cathy is much improved, and Cougar looks much better since he has had his teeth worked on. I am scheduled to go into the
dentist chair in a couple of weeks. Joy! Joy!
April 18 (Friday)
Dave is in Nashville today. It is not yet 10:00 am and already I have inserted Jim Harris' survey and finished up most of what I left
undone yesterday on EIS Quotas. I have a difficult time picking up one day from where I left off the day before -- not for the same
reasons a lot of people do (tired / cannot get motivated) -- but because my memory from one day disappears. I cannot remember a
thing I did yesterday, so getting started is excruciatingly difficult for me. But, what are you gonna do?
April 20 (Sunday)
BP spiked this morning. It seems that I did take my BP meds yesterday, but I guess it is possible that I forgot; otherwise, what could be
the cause of the spike this morning. I am also feeling the effect. I have taken my BP three times this morning, with the last reading being
158/96 with a pulse of 55. Not good.
April 24 (Thursday)
Thursday already. I experienced my first colonoscopy on Tuesday, and it went well. The doctor removed one polyp, but otherwise said
everything looked fine. I got some nice pictures of my colon. That stuff they require you to drink the day before is wretched; the results
for the subsequent 24 hours isn't very nice either.
I worked all day yesterday, and I mean literally. I started before 7:00 am and finished up around 9:00 pm. Of course, there was the
usual 1.5 hour drive to work each way. I came home at the usual 4:00 pm. But I had been on such a roll at work that I had to start it back
up shortly after I arrived home. But not before I spent some time with the dogs ...
Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and I did spend about an hour outside with my dogs. The fence I had installed is mostly doing its job,
except that Sam and Oscar have escaped over it a couple of times. Gotta work on that.
April 27 (Sunday)
Rainy weekend. I got some much needed housework done. The animals are all fine. Cougar has recovered very nicely from his two
orals surgeries. Bonnie and Clyde had their teeth worked on and they also are fine. Cathy is running around and generally displaying
fits of joy. Sam and Oscar continue to escape the fence. I spent $2500 building a fence for the front yard, and although I can't keep
those two big dogs inside it is good to be able to let all the dogs run around in a more spacious environment.
I am looking forward to getting back to work. As much as I am normal and enjoy a break from work, I do enjoy doing what I do for a living.
Software engineering is very challenging work, and there is always something new to learn. I am hoping to learn some ASP.NET and get
some more experience with a later version of VB, but for now, VB6 is still a viable tool with which to work.
