Day 3958

I almost went to the gym today. Then I remembered that there was still water on the roof. It's going to rain again soon, but I knew that along with the water, there was a ton of leaves, acorns, and pecans that needed to be cleared away. All this debris makes little dams when it rains and turns the roof into a series of duck ponds. I eventually got everything cleared away and ready for the next rain. I'm sure that I burned a lot more calories than I would have if I'd gone to the gym.

We slept in a little late this morning, but it didn't seem to bother Dawn at all. When I finally woke up, she was still curled up under her blanket and in no hurry to get up. We had a nice walk, but nobody set any speed records. By the time we returned home it was almost time for lunch. Since we still hadn't had breakfast yet, we fixed pancakes and sausages instead. 

The whole day was kind of slow. Janet baked an apple pie and I didn't do much of anything. After spending a couple of hours cleaning up the mess on the roof, I didn't have the energy for anything else. I did get 20,000 steps today though. Two long walks and some roof duty. That was about it.

I'm convinced that the virus is spreading through large family gatherings. Every time I walk in the park I see very large family picnics and barbecues. Everybody has learned to be wary of strangers but they are a little too comfortable with people they know. I'm not terribly close to my own family, so it's hard for me to understand why people like to gather together. It's happening though. I have a feeling that weddings, funerals, reunions, and birthday parties are far more dangerous than trips to the grocery store.

I washed my favorite drywall mask in the washing machine today and now it smells like soap instead of sawdust. I don't know what this thing is made of. It's not paper and it's not fabric. I thought it might disintegrate in the wash, but it held up pretty well. The mask looks a lot better now. It suffered a mishap out at the observatory when I forgot I had it on and tried to take a bite of a taco.

I still need to order a replacement for the part that fell off my tripod at the observatory. Luckily, the missing piece is not very expensive. Ordinarily, I would have taken care of this by now but I'm operating on a retiree's clock these days. There is no sense of urgency about anything. One of these days I will need the tripod again, but not this week. It's weird to have lost my desire to continually acquire new and better gear. Since I've become interested in astrophotography, it would be tempting to upgrade my camera gear. There are definitely things I could improve. The existing cameras are more than adequate though. Why bother. I don't really have the money anyway.

I will need the cameras tomorrow. There is a new Dalmatian up at the kennel. He's going through heartworm treatment now, but will be available for adoption as soon as he's healthy again. I'll need to get him up on the website soon. At least Charlie isn't all alone any more.

I wish that NASA would reschedule the Crew-1 launch. I'd like to know what I'm going to be doing in November. The launch was originally scheduled to take place on Halloween. I hope the new schedule doesn't move the launch to Thanksgiving. I'd hate to miss Thanksgiving dinner. We'll see what happens. At least I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. It's going to be another Dalmatian Monday.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day