Day 3941

Now that I am retired, I often wonder how I used to get so much done during my working career. I've really slowed down. All I basically did today was carry on an e-mail correspondence with three different people and it just about wore me out. Things are definitely starting to happen. I am getting messages about the astrophotography workshop from McDonald Observatory, messages about the upcoming Crew 1 launch from Kennedy Space Center, and messages from my editor about the Sky and Telescope article. For a while today, I actually started feeling like a working journalist.

I definitely didn't feel like a working roofer today. I postponed making repairs with the silicon coating again. I've done this a lot lately. I had used up so much time eating breakfast, walking Dawn, and answering e-mail messages that there wasn't much time left for dirty, messy work. It was hot this afternoon too. Basically I just didn't feel like climbing up on the roof. There's still plenty of time. The weather looks good for the next week.

Dawn continues to do well. We are back to our old walking schedule now with no adverse effects. Dawn still spends a lot of her day just lying on the bed, but I don't think there's anything wrong. She's basically just a lazy dog. She and I should be soul mates. I wouldn't mind spending a lot of my time just lying on the bed as well.

I did some research on star trackers this afternoon. I'm debating getting a tracker for my trip to the observatory. They dramatically improve pictures of the Milky Way and there are actually quite a few to choose from. These little gadgets are fairly expensive though. It's hard to justify getting something like this when I know it will rarely get used. There is way too much light pollution in Dallas to take pictures of the stars at all.

We passed another downed tree during our walk in the park this morning. Every time I see something like this, I think one of the Oak trees in our back yard is going to be next. Coincidentally, I passed some tree trimmers in the neighborhood on my afternoon walk. I thought about asking them to stop by my house after they finished and give me a bid for taking down the tree that got damaged last Summer. The workers were all up in the neighbor's tree however and I didn't want to bother them, so I just kept walking. Another missed opportunity.

It doesn't seem like a week has passed since I hauled last week's trash out to the curb. For that matter, it doesn't seem like a year since I had my last eye exam. Time goes by so quickly now. I guess that's a big reason why I don't want to pass up opportunities to do things I enjoy. There just isn't that much time left. Almost every week I read about someone I went to high school with who has passed away. Jeez. Van Halen died the other day. I didn't even know he was sick. I need to make a resolution not to waste a single day. Maybe I'll do that later after I waste a few more days doing nothing. Like I said, Dawn and I should be soul mates.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day