Day 3826

Another day with the rescue Dalmatians. Monday's are all about the dogs now. We spend the morning walking Dawn and the afternoon playing with the three remaining boys in the rescue program. Hank, Murphy, and Charlie are all doing well. They never seem to tire of chasing red rubber Kongs and begging for treats. All three of these dogs have an enormous amount of energy. I hope they get adopted by someone who enjoys staying equally active.

I wish I had an enormous amount of energy. I'm just not feeling it these days. By the time we've finished our early morning walk, I'm tempted to just go back to bed. I never do, of course. I'm still disciplined enough to make the bed, fix my breakfast, and contemplate how to navigate my way through another day. I used to have a ton of ongoing projects that kept me occupied, but it's getting harder and harder to find anything that captures my interest.

The office is filled with the wreckage of abandoned obsessions. I still have the huge printer I used to make Giclée prints for gallery shows. There are still a few model trains on shelves that somehow never made it to my dealer in Kentucky who is selling my collection. I have a ton of watch repair tools and timekeeping paraphernalia, but no desire to even keep my remaining watches running. I wonder how I ever became so interested in watches? It's a mystery.

I'm still interested in following rocket launches and hanging out at major observatories. Jeez. Couldn't I have picked something less complicated like gardening or collecting stamps? Getting access to launch sites requires multiple levels of approval and the observatories I like to visit are very far away. I'm still waiting to hear whether I'll be able to attend the upcoming Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch in late July. I keep checking my e-mail to see if my request for media accreditation has been approved. I also check the news to see if the virus keeps getting worse in Florida. Who knows. By the end of July, I might not even feel safe going to Florida. Flying on a half empty plane seems fine, but I'm not sure about how I'll feel when the flights are full again.

I found a book in the office today that has been missing for years. When I became interested in astronomy again, I knew I had a book somewhere that explained a new and easy way to learn the names and locations of the constellations. I got the book back in high school but I haven't seen it in ages. I even thought for a while that this might have been a library book. All I knew that the book was large and the cover was blue. Imagine my surprise when I found the volume today. I was actually looking for something else, but there it was. It is actually a very interesting book. I wonder how many other forgotten treasures are lost in the labyrinth of this messy office?

The world is still a train wreck, but I'm tired of talking about it. A little house in the country with clear, dark skies and no neighbors for miles and miles sounds pretty good to me now. Of course if there really was a way to escape the chaos of urban life, I'd probably immediately get bit by a snake or fall off a cliff or something. I like to think I'm self sufficient, but few of us really are.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day