For the last 7 years I have driven a very nice car. When I bought it in 2003, it was the nicest car I had ever driven; over the last 165,000 miles, however, it started to show its age, and was almost like a diary of strange driving events:

• There was the slight dent in the back bumper where an elderly man backed up completely out of his driveway, across the street, into the driveway of my daughter’s daycare provider, and into my bumper – despite me yelling and waving my arms for him to stop.

• There was the rust spot on the driver side door, which occurred thanks to (another) freak Lockport wind storm, that jerked the door out of my hand and into a parking lot pole 2 years ago.

• And there was a tiny chip out of my windshield, always exactly in my field of vision, that happened during a hailstorm last spring.

No matter how much we love a car, car owners know when it’s time to say goodbye. That time for me came last night, when I was shocked to realize that I could somehow afford the lease of a 2010 Toyota Camry XLE.

Despite my former car’s shortcomings, and thanks to the generosity of Mike Basil Toyota, I drove off the lot with an amazing new vehicle.

As I drove home, it was like a cloud had lifted. I had been worrying about my old car for quite some time. I knew that eventually it was going to start costing major buckage to keep on the road; it was just a question of when. To not have that worry hanging over me anymore was liberating.

Everyone talks about that “new car smell.” For me, it’s more than just a smell; it’s that new car feeling, and at the moment, I’m loving it.

–Brian

Many of you already know that our family dog Rocky passed away last week. To all my friends and acquaintances who expressed their condolences, I thank you. It means more to me than you know.

While Rocky’s death was “expected,” I don’t think anyone is ever really ready for it. The finality of death, and in Rocky’s case the quickness of his decline, took us all completely by surprise. After nearly 14 years, the shock of suddenly not having him around was quite profound; not just for me, but for my wife and children too.

Rocky pre-dated both of my kids. We brought him home as a puppy shortly after buying our first house in 1997, and his claws clicked on the floors of that house, and two others since, until last week.

I think what struck me most about this experience was how universal grief truly is. As a child I remember being terribly sad when the family dog died, but this was different. I would say it’s no less difficult dealing with the loss of a cherished family pet than it is mourning the passing of an elderly relative: grief is grief.

Before we buried Rocky underneath his favorite tree in our backyard, we stood and remembered things about him that made us smile:

One morning I had Rocky in the station truck with me. I left something in the house, so I ran in to get it, leaving the truck running. When I got back, Rocky had locked himself in the truck (and me out of it), and had his paws on the steering wheel, seemingly ready to drive off without me. I had to have someone from the station drive out to my house with a spare set of keys so I could make it into work that day.

We lived near a mountain lake in our first house in Virginia, and would often let Rocky loose at the tail end of his walk to run free. He really looked forward to being let loose from the leash, and would run faster than I have ever seen any dog run. We learned later that his parents were both award-winning Jack Russell Terrier racers.

But probably the memory that sticks out most is when I took his squeaky toy and put it on our refrigerator, because I couldn’t take the squeaking anymore. Rocky looked at that squeaky toy, paced around the floor, and decided to go for it. For at least 30 minutes he took running leaps, getting higher and higher, until he finally grabbed the squeaky toy from off the fridge, and victoriously ran off with it. I have never seen any dog that determined, and certainly never saw any dog jump that high.

Rest in peace, Rocky. You are, and will be, sorely missed.

–Brian

My kids have always loved telling jokes. Most of these jokes are not funny. But that has never stopped anyone from telling jokes, and I have to give credit for at least trying. We still quote my son Connor’s very first original joke, told when he was four:

Well, Darcy took this a step further with her latest “book,” The Joke Book, decked out in red construction paper, and stapled with lined notebook paper pages. Here are some examples:

What do you call a snail on a boat?
A snailor!

What animal likes corn?
A unicorn!

What is a butt’s favorite food?
Butter!

The last one’s my favorite, because it’s so bizarre.

Have you heard any good ones lately?

–Brian

Every now and then, a commercial hits that everyone likes, and everyone quotes. (“Where’s the beef?” “My bologna has a first name…” “Nothing but net.”) Sadly, I still quote these oldies but goodies.

This year, that commercial is obviously the Old Spice Man. Guys think he’s cool, women do too, but they have other obvious (shirtless, muscular, abs…) reasons for liking him.

I liked the first commercial, which appeared during this year’s Super Bowl, a lot. But what makes 36 year old Isaiah Mustafa so endearingly cool is his personalized videos, based on his Old Spice Man character, that he is making in response to totally random posts on his Twitter page.

For example, someone with the handle “BabyMan” commented, and Old Spice Man spent about 30 seconds in his response video wondering if the man was a baby with a man’s muscle tone, or a man with a baby’s softness and purity of spirit. Priceless!

There are a lot of these response videos on the Old Spice Man YouTube Channel. What is your favorite?

–Brian

Every year we say the same thing around here: 12 months of activities, and only 3 months of summer to cram them all in!  That was never more true for me, personally, than last week.

Starry Night in the Garden was another fantastic success. Despite some concerns about the weather, the skies cleared and gave us a cool but dry night, and the artists didn’t disappoint. If you missed any of the performances, definitely check out our video recap and a whole bunch of pictures here.

It was a very diverse lineup this year, with Melanie Fiona kicking things off, just before her big European tour. Serena Ryder got warmed up for the Lilith Tour by playing a very intense acoustic set, and then we were able to celebrate Alex Band’s  CD release by presenting him with a cake on-stage, thanks to his fan club.

But Collective Soul was our headliner, and I mean no offense to any of our warm-up acts when I say they truly deserved to top the bill. Hit after hit after hit, with songs that I think sounded better acoustic than they do on record. If you ever get the chance to see Ed and Joel acoustic, do it without hesitation. A very appreciative crowd of 2500+ loved every minute, especially “Buffalo Barry,” who got up on stage and played guitar with the band.

So a fantastic night of food, wine, and music on Wednesday, followed by Thursday At The Square and Martin Sexton downtown.

Friday night, Heather and I were lucky enough to visit the Saturn Club for a wonderful dinner and dancing (Thanks Mike and Christa!) while we listened to music in the courtyard from the Mark Mazur and his Little Big Band.

Saturday night, the Hard Rock Summer Concert Series kicked off in Niagara Falls, and I was able to experience the Gord Downie phenomenon firsthand.

Gord’s normal job is lead singer of the fantastically popular Tragically Hip, but he hits the road now and then with The Country Miracles. When it was announced that he was headlining the first concert of the summer at the Hard Rock, I was wondering if his side project would draw – but as you can see, Old Falls Street was packed. We stuck around and saw fireworks after the show, since it was July 4th weekend.

South of town, the rest of the Star Crew spent the holiday weekend in Ellicottville for the Summer Festival of the Arts, enjoying Survivor and the BPO with fireworks on the slopes of Holiday Valley.

Sunday, we took the kids to see Toy Story 3, which was a fantastic movie, and we finished the weekend with our own city’s fireworks display at Outwater Park in Lockport.

Whew!

So yeah, Buffalo gets a bad rap for its Winters, but we more than make up for it with an incredible selection of summertime activities.

For example, this weekend: Taste Of Buffalo, Thursday At The Square, The English Beat at the Falls, Huey Lewis at the Casino, Vans Warped Tour…..

–Brian

With the unveiling of the new iPhone this week, my thoughts wandered to how far things have come technologically just in my lifetime.

As a struggling radio guy in Northern Michigan back in my 20s, I’d DJ weddings and occasional parties to make ends meet. I would lug two huge speakers, stands, an amp, CDs, a huge stack of vinyl records, a mass of cords and adapters, a couple of turntables (exactly as pictured), two CD players, my mixing board and headphones to each event. It took about an hour to set up, another hour to tear down, and I shared the front seat of my Chevette with at least one of those huge speakers. At the end of the evening I was pretty tired, but a couple of hundred dollars richer for my troubles, so it all worked out.

Today, all those cases of records and CDs I lugged from event to event can be replaced by one iPod, and the size of the speakers I need today would be half the size they used to be back in the day, but putting out much fuller, more realistic sound.

An iPhone can download just about any song I would want in seconds, so if I were to go back to deejaying, I could handle just about any request on-the-fly. How amazing is that? My 20 year old self would be shocked, awed, and so very covetous of this technology!

Random Thoughts

–Brian

A yearly tradition for my wife and I is our anniversary weekend across the border at Niagara-On-The-Lake. Before I came to Western New York, I had no idea there were even vineyards and wineries here. The fact that there are world class wineries, incredible chefs with five star restaurants, and an internationally recognized theater company just minutes from my house is a secret that more people need to know about!

I always take my show on the road to kick off the Shaw Festival Theatre season. I have come to know many of the people responsible for making the Shaw such an amazing operation, and every year I seem to learn something new about it. For example: did you know that Queen Elizabeth herself dedicated the Festival Theatre complex in 1973? And from very humble beginnings in 1962, the Shaw now plays to over 300,000 people every year. That’s a pretty remarkable number, considering NOTL has only 15,000 year round residents.

After my event on Friday, Heather and I stayed at the Sterling Inn and Spa. Regular listeners of mine know we often give away One Tank Getaways here, and this time I was lucky enough to take one of my own. If you have never been, I would seriously recommend taking advantage of one of the packages they offer. I challenge you to find a more luxurious experience for so little money! Plus you’re within walking distance of the Falls, with free parking – that alone is worth the trip.

First we had one of the finest dinners of our lives at A.G. which is located right at the hotel. I had been hearing great things about chef Cory Linkson for years, but hadn’t had the chance to experience his genius first-hand until now. Heather and I have had some amazing meals in our lives, but Friday’s dinner ranks at or near the top. It was 7 courses, with a specific Ontario wine paired with each course. What made the dinner so memorable to me was the interesting food pairings and textures. For example, I would never think to put scallops, lentils, and chorizo (mexican sausage) together, but Cory did it, in an incredibly delicious way. I was blown away, even more so because everything on the menu was locally produced. There truly is something about fresh, local ingredients that makes your dinner experience that much better.

We floated happily away from dinner and checked into our suite. It was huge, clean, ultra-modern, and absolutely perfect. You really can’t beat an in-room jacuzzi; and I hated to leave the extra-large multi-head shower Saturday morning, but there were wineries to visit, so off we went.

Our weekend coincided with the Wine and Herb Festival in Ontario Wine Country, and we had passports which let us take part in special food and wine pairings at each winery we visited. We decided to focus on ones we hadn’t visited already, and were pleasantly surprised by Palatine Hills Estate Winery, which we found mostly by accident on our way out of town, by way of Lakeshore Road.

Hard to believe it’s been 14 years of marriage to my beautiful wife, but I’m happy to say we still have fun together after all these years, and there was plenty to be had during our anniversary weekend in beautiful Ontario.

–Brian

Now that I have had a few hours to let the Lost series finale sink in, I’m torn. I feel uplifted, because ultimately it was a happy ending. But I also feel sad; that the series is over, certainly, but sadder still that so many questions about Island mythology will remain unanswered. More about that later.

(Spoiler alert…do not read further if you haven’t watched the finale yet…)

Emotionally, I thought the finale tied everything up in a neat bow. It was wonderful to see most everyone paired up with the ones they loved the most at the end. The Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle was finally resolved in a satisfying way, and Sawyer and Juliet finding each other again is what we all wanted to see. My wife and I shed a lot of happy tears throughout the 2.5 hour extravaganza.

It was also brilliant how the producers were able to explain Sideways World. For six seasons they have been denying that the Island has anything to do with Purgatory. Technically, that is true: the Island didn’t have anything to do with Purgatory. That Sideways World was, indeed, a Limbo/Purgatory was a brilliant way for them to hide a key plot point, in plain sight! A loophole, if you will.

I went into the finale thinking the writers were going to merge Sideways World and the Island with some sort of nifty physics explanation by Daniel Farraday which included a lot of math scribbled in his little notebook, and possibly featuring Desmond as the catalyst – but this worked a lot easier than that. It also allowed them to include some beautifully shot flashback moments between the characters that put a satisfying emotional finish to this very special series.

While I enjoyed seeing Sayid reunited with Shannon, it was also a bit puzzling, since he spent his entire life pining for Nadia. I had almost forgotten their island romance, to be honest. That Shannon is Sayid’s one true love, after having spent so little time together, seemed a bit contrived. But, it was a nice way to reunite her with the cast and bring her brother Boone back for the finale, so I guess that’s why it happened.

The classic good vs. evil, Jack vs. MIB/Locke battle wasn’t as momentous as I expected; no black smoke coming out of Locke’s body at the end, but it got us to where we wanted to go. And seeing the True Locke forgiving Ben on his way into the church at the end was a nice touch.

I read so many Facebook status updates last night quoting Miles: “I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I believe in duct tape.” And speaking of Miles, “Welcome to the club,” he said plucking a gray hair from the head of a startled Richard Alpert. Looks like Richard’s immortality died with Jacob.

As usual, lots of religious allusions. Kate’s comment to Desmond outside the church: “Christian Shephard? Really?” And Locke on Jacob’s choice of Jack: “I expected to be more surprised. You’re kind of the obvious choice, don’t you think?” Not to mention Jack dying from a stab wound in his side, and checking that wound, ala Doubting Thomas.

I truly loved that the series ended as it began six years ago, with Jack lying down at the edge of the beach, near the bamboo forest. It was also sweet that Vincent, the dog, lay down with him at the end so he wouldn’t be alone, and seeing the Ajira Airways plane leaving the island reflected in Jack’s eyes was a fitting, and poetic end. I commend Lost for going out in style.

Questions…Questions….Questions….But what about the Island? What the heck is really at the bottom of that Spring? Who put it there? Will we ever really know?

What is with the ancient Tunisia/Island connection?

The statue, the hieroglyphics; what about all that, Lost producers?

Why does poor Aaron have to spend eternity as a baby? Just sayin’…

The chalice of wine that Jacob drank from with his “mother” when he took over guardianship of the island involved some sort of ritual chant. Jacob also chanted something, although it was less involved, when he gave Jack the cup to drink. Poor Hurley drank muddy puddle water out of an old water bottle, no chanting, barely any ritual significance. But the implication in the finale’s church scene was that he had a long and successful Island stewardship with Ben as his #2. So….what was with all the chanting? Geez.

Where is Locke’s love connection? The poor guy “moves on” alone, with all the people who didn’t exactly make his time on the Island a totally pleasant experience. His revelation, the key life moment which brought back his Island knowledge, was seeing his toes wiggle. That seems a little unfinished to me, for such a key character in the series.

Perhaps, we will get some explanations this August. Entertainment Weekly says a complete series DVD set with close to 2 hours of additional material will address many Losties questions. That will drop Tuesday, August 24, so look for it then in a video store near you.

I’d love your comments, so feel free to post your thoughts. Did you love it? Hate it? Let me know!

–Brian

After watching last night’s Lost, my lingering fear that this series will end in a very unsatisfactory way came rushing back. When all the dust settles, and all the big explanations come down, are we going to be stuck with some kind of New Age spiritualism at the heart of this story? I hope not, since that hardly justifies six seasons of obsession!

Tuesday’s episode, “Across the Sea,” came a little too close to that for me. I half expected Aslan, or Yoda, to suddenly appear in the clearing, explaining a key plot point.

Building an episode this late in the year, this close to the finale, around the origins of Jacob and the Man In Black (MIB), was a very risky move, and one that I don’t think paid off, at least not for me. Couldn’t this storyline have been explained in a flashback during a previous episode? Why bench your entire cast after such an action-packed episode last week?

This was an uneven, overly emotional, rather violent, Oedipal mess of a story, in which the West Wing’s Allison Janney, CJ Cregg, plays a harried, robe-wearing mysterious long-ago island guardian who kills a shipwrecked woman to take possession of her babies, one named Jacob and the other, frustratingly left nameless. Doh!

Along the way, we got some of answers we’ve been clamoring for (below), but the resolutions dropped awkwardly, explaining bits of one mystery, only to unveil a new set of questions.

“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question,” Janney’s nameless mother figure says to Jacob and MIB’s birth mother Claudia. That’s a quote that might as well be the show’s unofficial motto.

Janney, hereafter to be referred to as CJ, sees average people as evil. So even though she (I think) drew Claudia to the island so Jacob and MIB could be candidates to replace her, she tries to keep the boys away from their human brethren, afraid they will be corrupted.

Eventually, we learn that CJ is protecting a hidden light in the island, the source of all that magnetic energy the Dharma people were chasing for so long. CJ says if that light, “the light which shines within all of us a little bit,” is allowed to go out, then it goes out everywhere.

That doesn’t sound good, does it? It also didn’t do much for the storyline! What struck me was how stilted and wooden the acting was during this episode. We have seen so much better through the course of this series!

I’m still frustrated by what we still don’t know:

On the bright side, we did get a few answers:

MIB apparently built the big “donkey wheel” which somehow taps into the “secret light/power,” and can move the island. That being said, how did MIB accomplish this, with only rudimentary bronze-age tools? The well in which he and his camp uncovered a shortcut to the “power” was even dug by hand! Somehow devising a machine he could stick into the light to move people and places around seems like quite a stretch to me.

MIB was turned into Smokey when Jacob pushed him into the light/pool. His corporeal body died, but his soul lives on as the Smoke Monster. Admittedly, the birth of Smokey was one of the cooler things I have seen in this series.

It also raised the question of Ben, Sayid, and Claire’s dunking in the temple pool: is the water in that pool connected in a lesser way to the “pool of light and goodness,” which could explain their slowly turning bad from the inside out?

CJ destroys MIB’s dream of leaving the island, burning down the village of the humans he’s spent 30 years living with, in order to push him into killing her, which releases her from guarding the light. But, how did CJ manage to overpower an entire camp of strapping young men?

MIB uses a dagger to kill his “mom,” after which CJ thanks him. This dagger appears later in the series timeline, presumably the one Ben uses to kill Jacob, and which Sayid unsuccessfully uses in an attempt to kill Locke/MIB. Is there a greater significance to this dagger?

“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.”

Hmmmm. The most important question I am asking now is this: how in the heck can the producers end this show so that it won’t feel like a jarring mix of explosions and Chronicles of Narnia-like magical spirituality?

One more new episode before the two and a half hour finale. My doubt is growing by the minute.

–Brian

Last year, my wife and I bought a gazebo for our back patio. We put it together ourselves, and enjoyed it for one week, before a freak May thunderstorm came through, picked it up like a toy, and deposited it in pieces into the woods next to our house. Here is the tragic before and after.

This year, we are looking for something to put on the back patio again, but we’re having a hard time deciding. There is a very cool, heavier-duty gazebo (below, left) at Lowe’s that is just in our price range. It is more open, less like a parachute, but it’s only about 50 pounds more than the one we bought last year. There’s no guarantee it won’t suffer the same fate.

There’s also a heavier, but slightly smaller, steel pergola (above, right). The flat “roof” isn’t as cool as the gazebo, but it’s still a nice looking structure. The down side of both of these choices is that we would have to pay extra for delivery, and we’d have to find the time to put them together.

I am leaning heavily toward a very large 11′ by 11′ cantilever umbrella. What I like about it is that it offers better coverage from the elements, the base is nearly 300 pounds so it won’t tip over or blow away, it’s retractable so during a storm we can quickly crank it down, plus it can be fully retracted and covered during the winter months.

It will also be delivered to our home and set up (sand in the base, etc.) free of charge.

My wife doesn’t think it’s as attractive as the other choices, but what do you think?

–Brian

And then there was one.

American Idol’s fickle voters struck again Wednesday, sending home  Siobhan Magnus, despite a powerful performance Tuesday which impressed the judges mightily.

Her ejection also leaves just one woman standing — longtime favorite Crystal Bowersox, who again looked like she’d just been sucker punched as host Ryan Seacrest delivered the disappointing news to Magnus.  People have been telling me lately that Idol’s tween female audience is sinking the competition for all but the guys, and I’m beginning to agree. Crystal is the only female left!

Magnus’ ouster, after landing in the bottom three with Michael Lynche and Casey James, proved an almost anti-climactic end to yet-another overly padded results show.

With the field down to just six contestants, Idol producers did everything but light Ryan Seacrest on fire to eat up time, showing behind the scenes video from their latest Ford commercial, then showing the commercial itself, then airing behind the scenes video from the new Shrek movie, then showing footage of the contestants watching the Shrek movie and then proceeding to an uncomfortable live interview with Shrek co-stars Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas.

All that in the first 15 minutes or so.

The performances were equally odd, with Idol alum Carrie Underwood introducing the Sons of Sylvia, who looked a little like The Cure with a Nashville twang.

That oddity was surpassed only by Shakira’s duet with country pop rockers Rascal Flatts, a bizarro genre-blending moment which saw a barefoot Shakira jamming on the harmonica while Flatts frontman Gary LeVox tried desperately not to look like the odd man out he so clearly was.

Asked to give the Idols some advice by a desperately vamping Seacrest, Shakira quoted Theodore Roosevelt (?!): “Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground” — a historic line that sounded more like the legendary Casey Kasem’s classic sign off than our 26th president, but I digress.

And the clearest sign that Idol was straining to fill an hour; the show actually finished on schedule for the first time in weeks, as Seacrest led Magnus to hug all the judges and take some useless advice from Randy Jackson before finally wrapping up the sagging show.

Next week, Harry Connick Jr. mentors the Top 5 through a batch of Frank Sinatra covers. How Crystal does with that should be interesting!

–Brian

One of the great things about my kids’ school is the belief that writing, or “journaling,” is important. Since kindergarten, both kids have been writing down whatever they want, whether they can spell it right or not. Connor, in particular, had some very unique spellings up until recently; but the point was to get used to writing, and to express yourself through writing.

My daughter has been especially keen on this idea. She loves putting together her own books, stapled together, above and beyond the class-required quarterly journals. One book in particular caught my eye: Darcy Has Some Bad Things To Tell You.

Here is a list of what my 6 year old thinks is pretty terrible stuff.

1. I have bad luck.
2. We can’t find my Easy Bake Oven
3. Hailey threw a snow ball at my face
4. I do not get to have any more candy
5. I only got to watch half of iCarly
6. I had a bad dessert
7. Connor got soap in my eyes
8. I missed some rainbows
9. I don’t have a placemat
10. Cindy is not my friend anymore
11. Dad plays Guitar Hero when we are leaving (editor’s note: guilty as charged…)
12. My hand hurts

But she ends it on a hopeful note:

13. “But it doesn’t happen now,” with a smiley face.

As a parent, I feel awfully good about this journal. Of course, things are bound to change when she hits 13; I imagine by then she’ll be able to think of a few more pages to add! But for now, Darcy’s bad things aren’t so bad at all.

And for that I am incredibly thankful.

–Brian

Western New Yorkers take for granted that everyone knows what Dyngus Day is, but a lot of the country does not. A lot of my Facebook friends, for example.

So, for those who aren’t familiar with what this traditional Polish celebration is all about, here is a little background:

Dyngus Day, also known as Wet Monday, is a celebration that Lent is over, Spring is here, and – like all good happy Spring events – has quite a lot to do with boys chasing girls. And what better way to get a girl’s attention than by dumping a bucket of water over her head, right?

Traditionally, boys would literally dump a pail of water on a girl they liked, sometimes first thing in the morning! Over time a pail of water gave way to squirt guns, with some amorous lads even adding a little cologne to the mixture. (Whether this evolved into getting sprayed with cologne upon entering department stores is unclear.)

Boys also get to chase after their chosen girls by smacking them gently about the legs with twigs, traditionally pussy willow branches. This time of year, you see a lot of pussy willow arrangements in vases.

It’s been an interesting couple of days at Star 102.5 as we finish up the Request-a-thon for the Alzheimer’s Association. Putting this event together has taught me a lot about the disease, and how many are touched by it. So many people have come up to me, or called, or emailed to tell me how they are dealing with it in their lives.

To be honest, it also brings back painful memories of my grandmother’s passing, and more recently my aunt (pictured, middle), who both suffered from vascular dementia. As far as we have come with research and development, like cancer there is no cure for Alzheimers. There are many promising drugs in the pipeline, we are tantalizingly close to finding a cure, but it is still out of reach. That is what makes an organization like the Alzheimer’s Association so important.

In addition to the ongoing research, I think knowing you have help 24/7, even if it’s just being able to call someone for support, is incredibly important. I can’t imagine being a caregiver day-in and day-out watching someone you love slipping away. That feeling of helplessness is hard enough, but there’s also the underlying fear that you might be watching a future image of yourself going through the same thing.

So, I feel good about playing Frank Sinatra, Metallica, Selena Gomez, and the Beatles back-to-back, because it’s helping us break the chain of this terrible illness, and helping keep future children from going through it too.

Check out www.alz.org if you’d like to help.

–Brian

Star 102.5’s most-visited blog for the last few weeks, by far, has been Rob’s.  Like you, I have been looking at pictures of his new puppy, and reading about he and Linda’s first foray into pet parenthood. My only question to those two is, what took you so long?

Meanwhile, my 13 old Jack Russell Terrier, Rocky, is having a rough time. He was just diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease, which is basically an extreme imbalance between his adrenal and pituitary glands, and pretty common in older dogs. We noticed several months ago that he wasn’t himself. He’s been extraordinarily thirsty, lethargic, and unable to control his bladder for any reasonable length of time. He’s also developing a pot belly, which for an energetic dog like Rocky is unacceptable! He mopes around the house like he doesn’t know where he is half the time, and only seems able to relax by lying down on our cool ceramic tile.

There are two drugs normally prescribed for Cushing’s Disease. One has a decent track record, and no side effects, so our vet suggested we try it first. So far we’re having mixed results. A week into it he’s perked up somewhat, but his extreme thirst hasn’t gone away (he’d drink a gallon at a time if we let him), and now he has a sore on his side that won’t heal; another symptom of Cushing’s.

If this drug strikes out, the only alternative is a type of chemo, which I’m leery about because if we don’t get the dosage right, he could crash. Since Heather and I both work during the day, it’s not going to be easy to monitor his progress.

Regular readers of my blog know that Rocky’s been completely blind since 2006, having suffered from a severe case of glaucoma in both eyes. Up until now, he’s been incredibly resilient, amazing the vet with his ability to get around, up and down stairs, in and out of doorways, without sight. To have this happen on top of his blindness breaks my heart.

Anyway, reading about Rob’s new puppy brought back a lot of memories, as I try to keep my poor old dog comfortable in his final year of life. Hard to believe it’s been 13 years since we brought our own little fuzzball home for the first time.

–Brian