I think watching the sunrise on our early morning walks is the favorite part of my day. You could still see quite a few stars when we left the house this morning. Orion was rising in the East and below it near the horizon was the constellation of Sirius. Historically, the phrase "Dog Days of Summer" refers to the time of year that Canis Major begins to appear again in the morning sky. The Greeks thought that when the dog star appeared, it signaled heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. Sounds about right.
It was another slow day today. It's usually a bad sign when the only thing I can think of to do is get the water off the roof. This is a terrible chore in the summer. It's very hot on the roof and you have to be careful what you touch. Before I could sweep the water away, I had to remove a few low hanging limbs from a nearby Pecan tree. One branch was drooping so low that it was touching the roof. There was still quite a bit of water on the roof from our recent thunderstorm, but luckily I'm still not seeing any signs of leaks. Hopefully, it won't rain again until the weather gets cooler. Clearing today's water away was tiring. Something is wrong with one of the pumps too. I'll have to deal with that later.
The highway department has been building a new bridge near us for a long time. The bridge was supposed to be finished in March. Now that we are halfway through August, the bridge is finally nearing completion. I think it will be finished before the end of the month. Oddly, nobody in the neighborhood was very surprised by the delays. Things always take longer than expected. I have a feeling that the same sort of thing is going to happen with the virus vaccine. Everyone is talking about having a vaccine ready before the end of the year. Somehow, next August seems a little more realistic.
I wrote a letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. I bought a new roll of stamps a few weeks ago and I bet this roll of first class stamps will last me the rest of my life. These periodic letters to my sister are the only reason I have to go to the post office anymore. Now that I've gone paperless and made the transition to paying all my bills online, there aren't many reasons to mail anything. I find the current controversy about the post office kind of strange. The post office has actually been removing those blue mail boxes and decommissioning sorting machines for years. There was a good reason. Nobody sends letters anymore. Even the greeting card stores are going out of business. The next time you go to the post office look at what people are doing. They are all mailing packages. eBay and Etsy sellers depend on those low cost flat rate boxes. Actually, I think the post office has improved their package handling capabilities in recent years.
I've been hearing rumors that the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament is going to be canceled this year. I thought that golf was going to be one of the few survivors of the pandemic, but this doesn't really surprise me. Absolutely everything is being canceled this year. I don't have much hope of returning to Kennedy Space Center or McDonald Observatory in the foreseeable future. If I'm going to go anywhere, I'm going to have to come up with a plan on my own. Jeez. Where do you go when so many things are closed and people are becoming increasingly suspicious of strangers? It's a strange new world. Who would have thought that you'd wake up one morning and discover that everyday life and Black Mirror had merged.
Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day |
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