Day 3867

I guess I should look out the window more. I kept seeing all these pictures of a large rainbow by the lake on the Internet. I didn't even know it had rained. The rain couldn't have lasted long, but the yard is wet. It's weird. I've been waiting for rain for weeks and I missed it. I doubt that I would have made an effort to take a picture of the rainbow anyway. I hate to get wet.

Without my regular trip to the gym, Sundays are more uneventful than ever. We got another late start on our walk this morning but it was OK. The sky was cloudy and there was a breeze. The ducks and geese have all returned to the water. Why? As recently as a week ago they were all on the shoreline. One thing about ducks and geese, they do everything together.

I thought the wildflower season was over, but I keep finding new ones. The other day I found the Buttonbush flowers. Today it was a Rose Mallow. I think they call these big blooms Hardy Hibiscus as well. Janet and I are trying to identify a tree that looks like it is full of little plumbs. The park does have plumb trees, but this fruit looks a bit too small. I don't understand why so many people seem to spend their entire time in the park looking at their phones. There is so much to see out here.

It was hard to get up this morning. It's difficult to get up early when you go to bed late. It's taking me longer and longer to write the blog in the evening because I have so little to say. I stare at the screen waiting for a thought, but often nothing comes. Sometimes I'll take a break and do laundry, but that's not very inspirational. I need to go back to the observatory. I felt safe up on the mountain and I felt inspired looking at the night sky. The whole experience was the exact opposite of life in the city during a pandemic.

I keep seeing all these amazing pictures of comet Neowise on the Internet. I'm impressed, but lot of these people are just showing off. The images have clearly been manipulated using compositing and other advanced image stacking techniques. Sky replacement seems to be a popular technique these days. I kind of admire the people who just go take a picture of the comet in their back yard with their phone. It doesn't look like much, but for most of us the comet doesn't look like much in real life either.

I'm fascinated by the popularity of manipulated images that are presented as real. Somebody ought to do a serious article about this. Real isn't good enough anymore. People want better than real. Most selfies aren't real. There are so many filters out there that make it easy to bump things up a notch. I've met people at NASA events that I'd only seen on the Internet before. I didn't even recognize many of them. My photos may not be great, but they are definitely real. I'm too damn lazy to manipulate images.

I wish Dawn would warm up to me. She's pretty good most of the time, but I can tell she is still frightened at times when Janet is gone. Dawn tolerates me, but she's clearly Janet's dog. Oh, well. We've got plenty of time to bond and work on things. I'm not going anywhere. This pandemic has ruined most of my plans.

Smokey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day