Day 3954

I didn't do much today, but it still felt like a busy day. Dawn must have felt good this morning because she chose a longer route on her own. We walked almost five miles this morning with no issues at all. Dawn completed all her meds several days ago with no signs of a relapse. Her temperature is normal. Her behavior is normal. And all is well.

After spending an inordinate amount of time eating breakfast, I did some accounting and paid a few more online bills. I wish I had the nerve to just quit keeping track of things. One of my fantasies has always been having the ability to just buy what I want whenever I feel like it without even considering the price or how much is in my account. That's not going to happen. I'm a methodical, careful planner, but it gets old sometimes.

I had a conversation in Messenger this morning with a young niece who is interested in the same things I am. These conversations are rare, but I always end up feeling slightly better about the millennial generation. Many of these kids are hopeless, but the ones who chose to take STEM classes and pursue a difficult goal no matter how hard it seemed at the beginning are going to do just fine. I feel the same way about some of the younger folks I've met at NASA events. The future belongs to those who chose science over selfies.

I spent some time this afternoon learning how to enhance photos of the night sky by stacking multiple images of the same scene using special software that can align all the stars in each images. Usually you need at least ten images to see much of a difference. I have plenty of raw material to work with, but this is going to take a while. I just watched some YouTube tutorial videos today while looking at my notes from the workshop. When I find some time later this week I may start stacking some real images.

The rescue group got a call today from a veterinarian who still wants to do Christmas photos. This came as a surprise to me. I was fairly convinced that there would be no Santa Paws photos this year because of Covid-19. Everything else has been canceled this Fall, so I just assumed that photo events would be canceled as well. I'm a little apprehensive about doing this, but the more I thought about it, I'm pretty sure everything will be fine. Unless Santa himself has the virus, I'm spending most of my day with a bunch of dogs. Dalmatian Rescue could certainly use a fundraiser, especially since our golf tournament got canceled. Anyway, if I survive my upcoming trip to Florida to attend the Crew 1 launch, doing Santa photos will be a piece of cake.

When I looked at the Boca Chica live feed today I noticed that they are putting a nose cone on the current Starship prototype. This thing is starting to look like a real rocket now. No more flying grain silos I guess. I'm still amazed at how fast Elon Musk works. NASA has spent years developing Artemis, but Elon has already accomplished more with his Starship program in just a few months. I'd still like to go down to Boca Chica and see a Starship launch myself, but it's going to be hard to get invited.

Janet says there's a new Dalmatian at the kennel now. I'm curious about this new dog and will need to update the website the next time we go visit the kennel. Dalmatians, rockets, and stars. What else do you need? It may seem like a small world to you, but it is an entire universe to me. 

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day