Day 4102

I trimmed all the dead leaves off the hedge at the back of the yard. There isn't much hedge left. This year's big freeze really did a number on our backyard plants. I have a feeling that some of them just aren't going to recover. At least the hedge trimmer works well. I probably should have bought one of these a long time ago.

Today was slow and the highlight of my day was watching the Artemis-1 live fire test. The test went well and it looks like the rocket will be heading to Kennedy Space Center soon. The eight minute test was surprisingly interesting, considering that the rocket was bolted to a test stand and didn't go anywhere. The cloud of steam the rocket produced was so large that it showed up on weather radar. Stennis Space Center was created during the Apollo era and is pretty impressive. I'm glad I got a chance to tour the place before Covid hit. I'm sure it would be much harder to get access to the facilities now.

Dawn is eating normally again and didn't show any hesitation on her daily walk. Who knows what happened yesterday. We'll probably never know. She probably ate some disgusting dead animal in the yard. There are lots of feral cats in the area and we frequently find dead birds and mice in the yard. I've never seen Dawn eat anything bad, but dogs can be sneaky. Dot killed a squirrel once and Dash was obsessed with eating cicadas. The one good thing about all the feral cats is that we seldom find rats in the yard anymore.

I really need to find a new place to walk. I have a high tolerance for boredom and even I'm starting to get bored. I've memorized every inch of my journey now. I keep walking the same familiar paths because the distance is just about right. Even with my painful foot, I know I can complete the walk. On a good day, the foot doesn't even hurt very much. I watch the trees start to bud and keep track of where the resident ducks and geese are located. The ducks move around quite a bit. There are several old buildings in the park that were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps that the city is restoring now. Every day there is a little more progress and I've been impressed at how faithfully the crews have been recreating the 1930's era buildings. There's a lot of stone masonry involved that you seldom see anymore.

I'm still debating whether to get a star tracker for my trip back to the observatory. I keep looking at these things online, but I can't decide. The device would definitely improve my pictures of the night sky, but it is awkward and bulky to carry around. I like to travel light and I know I would never use this thing in Dallas. I really need to stop getting things I only use a few times a year. I have a bad habit of doing this. Even the hedge trimmer I used today probably won't get used again for a long, long time.

Janet and I were just about to put our winter coats away for another season, but today we needed them again. How did it get so cold overnight? I kept waiting for things to warm up, but I still ended up wearing a down ski jacket on my long walk. It probably would have felt warmer if it wasn't so windy. It's hard to decide what to wear at this time of year. When the sun goes behind a cloud, I'm cold and when the wind stops and the sun comes out, I'm hot.

When I took the trash out to the curb tonight, I looked up and saw the Moon, Mars and the Pleiades very close together in the sky. I went back in the house and got my binoculars. When I looked again I saw a satellite cross through my field of view. That was my five minutes of astronomy for the night. Now, I'm ready for bed.

Nick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day