Day 3861

Time flies. It's already Dalmatian Day again. There are still only three dogs at the kennel. Luckie, Hank, and Charlie are all doing well. Luckie is still very sky and apprehensive, but she seems to be relaxing a little. Someone came and looked at Hank during the week, but thought he was too active for them. Hmm. All Dalmatians are pretty active. I'd be more worried if a Dalmatian wasn't active. At any rate, we had a good time playing ball with Hank and Charlie and Luckie came over to us and let us pet her this week. We're making progress. Charlie is amazing. He knows how to sit, stay, lie down, and come on command now. I think he would enjoy doing agility work.

We got an early start on our walk this morning, but there wasn't much of a breeze today. Monday mornings are very quiet. We had the park to ourselves for a while. More people must be returning to work now. I'm starting to see a difference between weekends and weekdays again. It started to get hot as soon as the sun came up, so we had to cut the walk short a bit to keep Dawn from overheating. She almost always picks the best route home now on her own, depending on the weather.

Fifty one years ago today Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. A little over one year ago I was standing on the same launch pad the astronauts used, getting ready to watch a Falcon Heavy launch. I had no idea back then then that just one year later the entire world would have changed. Who knew? I keep wondering how long it's going to be before I can return to Kennedy Space Center and start covering launches again? It certainly doesn't look good this week. Florida and Texas have both become virus hotspots.

I went ahead and made an appointment to get a haircut. I'm perfectly OK with looking shabby, but I want to help my stylist stay in business. She said that if I made an early appointment, I'd be the only one in the salon. Sounds good to me. The last time I got a haircut was just before I went out to McDonald Observatory for a week. Early March was when all this mess with the virus started. I remember the discussions we had about whether the observatory was going to shut down. Nobody would have believed that we would still be talking about the same thing in late July.

I'm glad I got to see the comet again last night. No comet tonight. The last time I looked, there were thick clouds building toward the Northwest. I think it is going to rain tomorrow. Hopefully we will get at least one more clear night before the comet disappears from view. I think I know how to take a better picture now. It's not going to look like those fabulous pictures I keep seeing on social media, but I'm learning. Some of these people are just showing off with their pictures. I've seen the comet and the International Space Station flying overhead in the same picture. I've seen the comet in the same frame with an aurora, with meteors, with noctilucent clouds, and even a picture of the comet with red sprites in the background. Most of the good pictures were taken in remote areas with very dark skies. I'm lucky if I can see the comet at all through our light pollution and perpetually hazy skies.

Hopefully we can get Dawn walked tomorrow before the rain starts. I'd welcome a little rain at this point. It might cool things down a bit.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day