Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Day 3940

It's going to be a very busy month. I'm still planning my trip back to McDonald Observatory for the astrophotography workshop and I found out today that I have been cleared by NASA to attend the upcoming Space X Crew 1 launch. I was quite surprised to receive media accreditation for this important launch because Kennedy Space Center is still restricting media access because of Covid. Maybe persistence pays off. I'm still near the bottom rungs of the ladder, but I'd like to think that I'm slowly rising among the ranks of space journalists. At any rate, my magazine seems excited that I am welcome again at Kennedy Space Center and is planning to do a feature on the Crew 1 launch.

To be honest, I'm still a little apprehensive about flying as well as making that long drive out to West Texas again, but life goes on. I simply can't spend the rest of my life doing nothing but taking long walks in the park. Both the astrophotography workshop and the opportunity to witness another manned launch are events I've been wanting to do for a long time. I'll look for some really good masks and be as careful as I can.

Our beautiful Fall weather continues and Dawn definitely seems to approve. We took another four mile walk this morning and Dawn did great. She did better than me actually. On the final stretch as we were returning to the house, Dawn had so much energy that I gave the leash to Janet and they both pulled well ahead of me, arriving home almost five minutes earlier than me. I really slow down toward the end of our walks these days, mostly because my feet start to hurt. I've really got to find some better shoes.

By all indications, Dawn is back to normal again. She is certainly acting normally. Hopefully, this will continue and Dawn will remain stable after she had completed taking all her medication. I would like to think that this seizure is a rare event and if it ever reoccurs in the future we can just repeat the treatment that we are using now. Janet and I are both hoping to avoid complex MRI and CT scans when there is no practical medical solution anyway. 

In theory you can do brain surgery on a dog, but it is risky and not very common. There are no guaranties that the dog's life will be any better afterwards. Sometimes I think we went too far with extreme medical intervention with our other dogs. I'm still not sure that spinal surgery helped Dot all that much and we never should have attempted liver surgery with Gretta. She never made it out of the hospital.

I may be forced to try taking Allegra soon if my allergies don't clear up. With two long distance trips on deck, I just can't risk sneezing constantly. Sneezing and a runny nose are awkward at best and might even be alarming to someone else when you re wearing a mask. I could explain again and again that I am just suffering from seasonal allergies but nobody would believe me. I am so tired of this pandemic. I've always has seasonal allergies. They've gradually gotten worse as I've grown older and I doubt that there is anything I can do about them. I will test some antihistamines later this week, but I already know how they make me feel. It might be better than sneezing in public though.

I still haven't started my roof repairs. I did write a letter to my sister though and took it to the post office. One day at a time. I always try to accomplish something.  Today was actually pretty good. I think I accomplished several things. So did Dawn. We are both moving forward.