Day 4145

Another rainy day. Dawn doesn't like getting wet and didn't even want to leave the house today. At one point we thought we'd found a little dry patch where she could take her short one mile loop, but we were barely out of the back yard when the wind blew and some water from a tree fell on her. That was all it took. Back to the house we went. The rain didn't stop me of course. I waited until the rain slowed to a drizzle and was determined to get at least a minimum of 10,000 steps.

It seems like a rainy Spring, but actually this completely normal. It always rains a lot in the Spring. By Summer, we are wondering where all the rain went, because it is hot and dry for months at a time. It would be nice if we had a nice even amount of rain throughout the year, but that's not the way it works in Texas.

I got a little wet this afternoon, but I managed to walk four miles. There weren't many other people on the trails, but the ducks seemed to love the weather. I should have dressed a little warmer today. Usually I get warmer as I walk. Today I got colder. I should have known better. I had to turn the furnace on again this morning. Every time I turn the furnace on in April, I think "well, this is it for the year." Texas weather always proves me wrong.

One of the presenters at the astrophotography workshop wrote today and asked the participants to download WhatsApp so it would be easier for him to contact the group. I'm alway reluctant to install any Facebook app on my phone because Facebook is relentless about wanting to grab all the information about you it can. Instagram and WhatsApp won't even work unless you give them access to your contact list. I went ahead and added the app to my phone because I didn't want to be obstinate and get started on the wrong foot. I can always delete it later. I don't know why there is an obsession to use tools like this. Isn't e-mail enough? A few years ago, some NASA folks wanted me to download Slack for the same reason. I've never had any use for Slack since.

I wrote a letter to my sister today, but I didn't mail it because I didn't want to drive to the post office in the rain. This was actually kind of silly, since it's going to be raining even harder tomorrow and I'll have to go out and get groceries anyway. Oh, well. I'll add a stop at the post office to my errand list and wash the car later. I should be happy for all the rain we're getting. The yard is getting green again and some of the plants I thought had died in the freeze are starting to come back. Even some of the Asian Jasmine is starting to grow again. It's going to take a while before it looks like it did before the freeze, but green is good.

I keep trying to think of a follow up to my Sky & Telescope article.  My upcoming trip will be the second time I have returned to the observatory since the initial article I wrote last March. You'd think I could come up with something. I can't use the travel angle anymore since I've already used that. I'm limited in what I can write about astrophotography as well, because I actually don't know that much. I have to remember that I'm going out there to learn, not to teach. I hate to let an opportunity go to waste though. Maybe I can come up with something that the editors will like.

The lens I ordered hasn't even shipped yet. Not this again. Why has shipping become so difficult lately? Janet says Amazon Prime isn't delivering the next day anymore. The post office is hopeless. With my luck the lens will probably arrive the day after I leave for the observatory. My bad for wanting a world that runs like clockwork. I should have learned by now that what I'm going to get is a dystopian mess.

Bea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4144

It didn't rain as much as expected, but it was still a gray, dismal day. I didn't even want to get out of bed this morning, but I followed my usual routine anyway. After breakfast, I confirmed my reservation at the Astronomer's Lodge and canceled my reservation at Prude Ranch. I'm glad I already reserved a rental car for the trip because I keep reading stories that rental cars are in very short supply now. Everything seems to be in short supply these days. Manufacturers can't get enough computer chips to make their products. I finally got my chips though and the laptop still seems to be working after my memory upgrade yesterday. Knock on wood. I'm hearing that there will be a gas shortage this summer because there aren't enough drivers qualified to drive the tankers that refill the gas stations. Hopefully this won't be a problem when I visit West Texas. It's hard to tell if the problems I keep hearing about are real or imagined because the media loves a crisis. So far, my life still seems pretty normal.

I ordered a used lens today that will be useful at the astrophotography workshop. I rarely buy used photo equipment because there is always something wrong with it. Maybe I'll get burned again, but I hope not. I just didn't want to spend a lot of money on a lens I probably won't use after the workshop is over. I mostly do pet photography these days and I always use fast, quick focusing automatic lenses. Simple, manual lenses are preferred for astrophotography though. 

There were very few people out in the park when I took my long walk. I guess everybody else was afraid of getting wet. I trusted the weather radar on my phone and only got hit with a few brief sprinkles. It was actually a nice, cool day for a walk. I actually prefer overcast days. Shadows are seldom a photographer's friend and photos tend to come out better when clouds soften the light.

The two large Muscovy ducks were reunited today. I'll probably never know what happened yesterday. I saw the mean little female duck that chased all the other ducks off the island for the first time in several months. Watching all the duck activity gives me something to do. Squirrels just aren't that interesting.

The wildflowers are in full bloom now. Somehow, the big freeze this winter didn't seem to hurt them at all.  I really need to spend an afternoon photographing the flowers while they are all still here. The flowers are definitely pretty, but it is hard for me to get excited because I have photographed most of them hundreds of times before. Maybe this is why I'm interested in astrophotography now. It is still completely new to me.

It looks like Dalmatian Rescue is picking up a Dalmatian from a local pound. Maybe Charlie and Cooper will have company soon. The animal control description of the dog called it a Dalmatian Mix, but it sure looked like a pure bred to me. This handsome boy is very young, so he will probably find a home soon. The young ones always seem to get adopted quicker. I'll look forward to seeing this new guy when he arrives at the kennel. A new Dalmatian always makes our Monday a little brighter.

The week's trash has been taken to the curb and I'm trying to decide who to write tomorrow. I owe my sister a letter and I'm still trying to figure out what is going on with NASA press accreditations in Florida. My sister will write me back. NASA probably won't.

Parker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4143

Upgrading my computers is always a traumatic experience. I carefully followed all the instructions for installing new memory in my laptop and was convinced that I'd done everything correctly. When I put the computer back together and pressed the power button nothing happened. The computer was completely dead. I took the computer apart again and reinstalled the old memory. It was still dead. After several false starts I finally got it to start using AC power. My control panel said the battery was completely empty. How did that happen? The battery was at 90% when I started the repairs. I called technical support and they told me to try resetting the system management controller. I've reset a lot of things on Apple computers over the years, but I'd never even heard of this. The service guy said that my problem didn't make any sense, but that sometimes things get scrambled when the battery is disconnected. Evidently. The battery is recharging now and we'll see if it holds a charge overnight.

I got some good news from McDonald Observatory today. I can stay at the Astronomer's Lodge while I'm attending the astrophotography workshop. This might not seem like a big deal, but it actually is. I hate driving late at night on mountain roads. I almost hit a deer the last time I was driving back to the Prude Ranch after the workshop was over for the night. If I'm staying on-site at the observatory I can relax and probably stay up a little later taking photographs. Meals are included at the Astronomer's Lodge too. I'm looking forward to this.

We were supposed to get severe weather today, but it never materialized. So far this year we have been very lucky. The bad storms always seem to go to the north or the south of us. I hope this trend continues. I always worry about tornados since our house offers no protection whatsoever. May is supposed to be the worst month for tornados in Texas but the weather hasn't been that bad this year. Alabama and Tennessee seem to be getting a lot worse weather than we have lately. 

It was overcast with a little drizzle today, but I was still able to take my long walk. There are two very large Muscovy ducks I frequently see on my walk. These ducks always hang out together, but today they were more than a mile apart. This was the first time I've ever seen the pair separated. I wonder if they had a spat? Ducks are noisy and apparently very social. I often wonder what all the quacking is about?

It looks like there will be another Starship launch at Boca Chica this week. I keep thinking that I ought to go down there, but it is not as easy as it sounds. South Texas is almost as far away as Florida and there are fewer hotels. Also, when you get down there you never know if there actually will be a launch. This doesn't seem to bother some of the launch photographers, but they are much more adventurous than I am. I still like Florida when NASA rolls out the welcome mat the best. I hope those days aren't gone forever, but we'll just have to wait and see. 

I certainly won't be doing anything exciting tomorrow. I'll look forward to another fruit smoothie and a long walk. Maybe if I'm lucky I can convince Dawn to be friends with me.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4142

Today was a little different. I took my long walk right after breakfast so I would be back in time to take Janet to the dentist. Yesterday there was a lot of rain in the forecast but today it was just overcast. I was surprised that I made good time today. Often I don't when I walk early.

When I returned home there was a surprise in the mail. My long awaited computer memory chips have arrived. They certainly took the slow route to Dallas, but the package appeared to be in good shape. I'll probably upgrade the computer tomorrow, unless I'm feeling especially clumsy. I'm never wild about making computer modifications. There are a lot of tiny screws and very fine wires inside these things. I try my best to be careful, but the truth is that I am pretty clumsy. I gave up watch repair as a hobby because there are a lot of very tiny parts inside watches as well. I managed to get quite a few watches running again, but I ended up breaking way too many. Luckily, upgrading the laptop's memory is very easy. All I have to do is remove ten screws, take the back off the laptop, disconnect a few wires, and replace the existing memory. This should only take about ten minutes, but it will probably take me an hour.

Janet's dentist was still operating under Covid protocols. They didn't want me to come inside. I dropped her off at the front of the building and then I was supposed to call them from my car when I returned and they would bring her down to me. Her extraction didn't take nearly as long as mine did a few years ago. I was only home a short time before I got a call saying that it was time to pick her up. 

We stopped at the pharmacy on the way home to pick up her meds, but they weren't ready yet. I took Janet home, watched Dawn curl up next to her on the bed, and then returned to the pharmacy. Dawn will make a good nurse. She never leaves Janet's side. I walked up to an empty counter and picked up Janet's meds, but when I was leaving two snarky ladies hissed at me and said "guess you didn't see the line" under their breath. I guess not. They were so far away from the counter that I thought they were shopping for something else.

I've either got to start going to the gym or just accept the fact that my body is wearing out. I was watching one of those Life Alert commercials while I was eating breakfast this morning and found myself wondering if I should get one. "I've fallen and I can't get up" is beginning to seem very real. I'm thinking of getting a walking stick for my trip to the observatory. I might take a folding camp chair as well. One of the bad things about astrophotography is that you often have to get down on your knees to point the camera at the proper section of sky. I remember hating getting up and down so often on my last trip. Maybe a walking stick and a folding canvas chair will help. I still refuse to call the walking stick a cane, but you get the idea.

The Artemis-1 SLS booster I saw at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans a few years ago has finally arrived at Kennedy Space Center. Over the next several months it will be assembled into a moon rocket and hopefully launch before the end of the year. This is the one launch I really don't want to miss. Since I can't really count on NASA anymore, I'm going to have to get to know the people in the Air Force media office again. The people I used to know are gone now, but if I did this once I guess I can do it again.  

Chance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4141

I almost forgot it was Monday today. I was getting ready to take my long walk when Janet reminded me that it was time to go see the rescue Dalmatians. I took my camera in case the new female in the program was at the kennel, but when we arrived we learned that she had already been adopted. Charlie and Cooper were glad to see us as always. We've been pretty good at teaching these active guys to "go out for a pass" and catch a toy football in midair. We need to try to teach them some manners. Maybe they would find a home quicker.

We had already taken Dawn on her short walk before we left for the kennel, but there was still time for me to take my long walk after we returned home. I knew I was going to be slow this afternoon because my foot was bothering me before I even left the house. It's kind of irritating that the only thing my foot doctor was able to recommend were new shoes and some topical pain cream. There is just no magic bullet when your cartilage begins to wear out. I'm going to keep walking though. I have a feeling that things would get worse rather quickly if I quit moving. I know other people with arthritis and the fact that I can still walk six miles a day is proof that I'm really not doing all that bad. It could definitely be a lot worse.

My package isn't in Indiana anymore. With any luck it might arrive later this week. I wonder why USPS surface mail is so much slower than FedEx Ground or UPS Ground? Most UPS Ground orders arrive in three or four days. I know why Amazon Prime is so quick. They have giant warehouses all over the country and most things we order on Amazon are already in the Dallas warehouse anyway. Maybe I should be glad that the post office is slow. It gives me something else to track every day.

I watched the Delta IV Heavy NROL-82 launch on the ULA live stream this afternoon. I've always wanted to see one of these launches in person because the Delta IV Heavy is huge. I was approved to see the last Delta IV Heavy launch in Florida but the trip didn't work out for a variety of reasons. Since these rockets are almost always used to launch giant school bus sized spy satellites you don't get a lot of access at a launch. It would still be great to see one lift off though. There are only three of these aging giants left, so I'd better get planning if I want to see one of the remaining ones fly.

Janet is having a wisdom tooth removed tomorrow, so I'll need to take her to and from the dentist. Whenever you have a wisdom tooth removed you kind of wish you'd taken care of this earlier in life. Wisdom tooth roots go on forever and it is not always easy to remove them. My dental surgeon told me that the hole where the tooth used to be would fill in over time. It never did. There is still an indentation in my jaw that is easy to feel at the gum line. Hopefully Janet's extraction will go smoothly. We've stocked up on tasty soups so she'll have something to eat while she recovers.

We're starting to think that Dawn used to just be fed once a day. She still eats the same amount of food, but her schedule has changed. She isn't as interested in breakfast anymore and wants to eat more at dinner. I guess this is OK, but it seems weird to have a dog that isn't interested in breakfast. We couldn't fix breakfast fast enough for all our other Dalmatians. To each his or her own I guess. As long as Dawn continues to eat a normal amount of healthy food, we're not going to worry about when she eats. 

I'll continue eating my own breakfast at the same time every morning. Hey, I'm not a dog, even though I act like one at times.

Brady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4140

Taking Dawn on a car ride to a new park has become a Sunday ritual. Dawn always appears excited and apprehensive at the same time. It kind of reminds me of how I feel when I take car trips. By all rights Dawn and I should be best buddies. We both spend way too much time waiting for the other shoe to drop. Today was certainly a good day for a little excursion. It was beautiful outside. We saw horses today. Dawn wasn't scared of them, but I don't think she realized that Dalmatians are supposed to have a natural affinity for horses. What Dawn was really interested in was the ice cream. We always end our Sunday outings with an ice cream cone.

I stayed busy today. It was an increasingly rare 20,000 step day. I must have looked pitiful when I was mowing the grass this morning because a homeless man wandering down the street stopped and asked if I needed help with the mower. I assured him that I was fine and always mowed this slow, but he persisted for a while before he continued wandering down the street. I think he just wanted money. The good news is that the yard looks a lot better now. The bad news is that I'm probably going to have to start mowing every week again. Most people on the street use a yard service now, but I continue to mow myself. Why not. We have a small yard and it's good exercise. I don't really like yard work, but I don't like going to the gym either. I wish the human body just stayed in shape automatically.

Now that my missing package has resurfaced, I'm getting frequent notices from the post office about its whereabouts. Oddly, the package is still in Indiana. I think it is making a grand tour of Indiana postal facilities. The post office needs to talk to Amazon. Janet has Amazon Prime and they seem to be able to deliver virtually anything the next day.

There were even more people in the park today than there were yesterday. It's not surprising. You've really got to take advantage of nice weather here in Dallas. It doesn't last long. I don't mind all the joggers and dog walkers on the trails, but there are way too many skateboarders and guys barreling along at thirty miles an hour on those electric Onewheel boards. You can buy a used car for the price of a Onewheel, but  these things are surprisingly popular. A brand new way to kill yourself I guess.

I'm continuing to watch YouTube tutorials about astrophotography. I'm amazed at how many people make these things. Some of them are very good. If you want to do anything, there's a YouTube video to tell you how. Before I attempt any major computer repairs, I'll look for a YouTube video to explain the process. Why do people make these videos? You might make a little money from the ads that Google inserts at the beginning, but I suspect that most of these tutorials are a labor of love. I could never do this myself but I'm glad these tutorials are out there. You can learn a lot on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Dawn has decided to join us for dinner again now that Janet and I have switched chairs and she can't see me. It's weird to have a dog that doesn't like you. Dawn isn't scared of me at all and is perfectly comfortable with me feeding her and walking her on a leash. She just doesn't want to be friends. It's OK. Actually I understand completely. I don't want to be friends with everyone either. 

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4139

Whenever I'm grocery shopping on Saturday I always wonder if there is a holiday I've forgotten about. The roads are so crowded and the stores are so full that I'm convinced that something special must be going on. Nope. Nothing to see here. I just live in a city that is growing by leaps and bounds. It took me a while to find everything on my list today. Maybe I ought to do my shopping on a weekday. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't make any difference. Dallas is always crowded.

I arrived home later than usual and the house was empty. Janet and Dawn had already gone on their walk.  When they returned, Janet told me that Dawn couldn't wait. I did wait a while before taking my own longer walk. I was tired. I used to enjoy shopping. Not anymore. People are rude. Stores are often out of stock of the things I need. And I'm growing tired of wearing a mask.

At least it was a nice day. It was a little humid for my taste, but the weather was warm and I was able to wear shorts and a t-shirt. The park was definitely crowded today. There was a regatta at the lake and the water was filled with small sailboats. The cyclists were out in force and groups of all sizes were having picnics and barbecues. This happens every Spring, but this year it feels a little different. People are emerging from lockdown and there is a definite celebratory mood in the air. I'm not in a party mood myself, but it is nice to see people happy again. I just wish everyone would clean up their mess when they leave the park.

I wore my snake boots while I was running errands this morning to see if they would be uncomfortable to take on my trip to the observatory. Yep. They fit fine but are definitely uncomfortable after a while. Any shoe where the sole bends is uncomfortable now. This is unfortunate because it makes a rather large collection of perfectly good shoes virtually worthless. The only shoe I can wear for an extended length of time are my Hoka Bondi 7's with their ridiculously thick rigid soles. Do I choose comfort or a perceived  but unproven protection from snakes? We'll see. I've still got some time.

I wrote some photographers who attended the Crew-2 launch and asked whether they would share their secrets with me. One guy wrote back and told me that he didn't get his application accepted by NASA either, but the Air Force helped get him on-site. It looks like I'll have to pursue this route in the future. I do have Air Force accreditation for 2021, but I haven't tried to use it yet. When you view a launch from Patrick Air Force Base you can't get as close as you would be if you were watching at the NASA press site, but it's a lot better than watching on the beach somewhere. I'm still hoping that I can find a way to get back in NASA's good graces. They provide interview opportunities and lots of other perks if you manage to get accredited under their auspices.

Janet and I discovered that Dawn will stay in the kitchen with us if we switch chairs at the kitchen counter nook where we often eat. I'm a little further away from Dawn's bowl and dog bed now. Don't ask why we actually want a dog hovering around the table while we eat. Normal people would probably be happy if their dog stayed in the bedroom. We've had Dalmatians for so long now that it doesn't seem right if there aren't dogs underfoot at mealtimes. I'm totally used to dogs waiting for table scraps to fall on the floor while they are drooling on my shoes.

I don't know how much longer I can postpone mowing the front yard. Weeds are already starting to overpower the grass. Maybe I'll give it a try tomorrow. My shoulder and back didn't feel too bad today and the grass isn't going to mow itself.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4138

I had to scramble to get our walks completed before the rain began today. I took my long walk immediately after breakfast and actually made good time. When Janet returned from grocery shopping, we took Dawn on her short one mile loop. Less than half an hour later it began to rain pretty hard. It continued raining for the rest of the day, but it felt good to get most of our major chores out of the way before the deluge began.

It's still raining and I think we got some hail at one point. It could have been a lot worse however. Other parts of North Texas saw tornados. We didn't even have much wind. The two pumps on the roof are working well today, so all is well. I'm continually grateful that Dawn has no storm phobias. Thunder and lightning don't bother her at all. She just freaks out if I'm in the kitchen with her.

The park was pretty empty when I walked this morning. I guess a lot of people didn't want to risk getting wet. I don't want to get wet either, but I've grown to depend on a multitude of weather apps on my phone. I never take selfies, but I do check the weather a lot. Sometimes the weather radar lets me down, but everything worked perfectly today. Hopefully this storm will have moved well to the East by tomorrow when I need to do my own grocery shopping.

My missing package has mysteriously reappeared. It has taken 12 days for it to move from one post office in Indiana to another post office in Indiana. I suspect that it was thrown in the wrong bin and was only recently discovered. The post office assures me that all is well though. The package is on the move. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get it sometime next week.

I didn't wake up in time to watch the Crew-2 launch live on the Space X stream, but I watched the replay later. What a beautiful launch! This would have been a great one to see in person. When I see the pictures some of the other launch photographers take, I can't help being a bit envious. I've got to figure out how to get credentialed again. Sometimes I ask photographers I know what their secret is, but nobody has revealed it yet. I'm sure it all depends on who you know. That's how it works in every other aspect of life. Why would it be any different at NASA?

Dawn didn't eat her breakfast this morning. We left the food out and she ate everything normally around noon. When I fixed her dinner this evening, she didn't eat that either. About an hour later when I wasn't in the kitchen, she wandered out and ate everything. Now that Dawn is becoming more confident, she is starting to set her own schedules. There is nothing wrong with this. It is actually a good thing, but it is a bit unnerving for a person like me who had a fixed, inflexible schedule for almost everything.

There are some large, older houses near the halfway point of my daily walk. They were probably built in the 1940's and I've always liked them. Today I noticed that one of my favorite houses was being demolished. This is a trend in our part of town. Developers will buy a house on a large older lot, scrape it, and then put up two large homes on the same lot. There never was a lot of respect for history in Dallas, but   now the old buildings are disappearing faster than ever. I'm sure our house will be scraped someday. It's a shame. A decent person would restore it instead.

I hope I see blue sky in the morning. It's grocery day tomorrow and my list is pretty long. Janet and I have a system on groceries. She buys the things that require a discerning eye and I buy the commodities. It's hard to go wrong when you are just buying beer, laundry detergent, and toilet paper.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4137

I got a real letter in the mail today. This is increasingly rare. Most of our mail is junk. There is always lots of political mail whenever there is an election. There are weekly grocery store circulars and various home services send flyers advertising lawn care and tree removal. I used to get lots of trade magazines, but most of them have gone out of business. I still get bills in the mail, but I don't even open them. They are just reminders that it's time to pay online again. Whenever I'm waiting for something specific, it never comes. I've been waiting for author copies of a SpaceFlight Magazine article for several months now and of course there are those computer memory chips that seem to have disappeared. I still wait for the mail every day though. It's just something old people do.

I still watch TV while I'm eating breakfast as well, but I'm constantly changing channels because there's nothing I like. I don't know what kind of audience the network morning shows are targeting, but it definitely isn't me. Cable news is like a broken record. It seems like we are always in the middle of the same crisis. The financial channels increasingly talk about Bitcoin, SPACs and other things I don't understand. Sometimes the only thing left are old TV Westerns, Perry Mason, and The Andy Griffith Show.

I've just about given up on NASA. I write polite letters asking about accreditation, but never get a response. Actually I don't get a response to many of my questions these days. When I retired and my business slowed, I kind of dropped off the radar. When you no longer have something other people want, you gradually become invisible. Generally, I don't mind being invisible, but I hate being totally out of the loop. I wish I had some kind of card I could flash whenever I wanted to participate in something. Sadly, life doesn't work that way. You have to stay involved if you want to participate.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to be a regular part of the launch photography community because I can't afford to visit Florida that often. I'm not going to write frequently for astronomy magazines either because I don't actually know that much about astronomy. It's easy to get discouraged, but there are always opportunities. I guess my job now is to always keep an eye out for new opportunities.

Dawn has decided that she likes walking through open fields instead of staying on the trails. This would have been good in the Winter, but now the prairie grass is growing tall and I worry about chiggers, ticks, and especially snakes. I don't see many snakes but I know they are out there. I'm already fretting about what shoes to wear out at the observatory. Do I wear lightweight, comfortable sneakers, or heavy snake proof boots? I always take the boots, even though they are uncomfortable after I've been wearing them for hours. That's one thing I liked about growing up in Alaska. There were no snakes.

There are severe weather warnings for tomorrow again. Most of these warnings don't amount to anything, but you've got to take them seriously. One way or another it does look like it's going to rain. Right now there is a 100% chance of rain. How am I going to take my long walk if it rains all day? Oh, well. I can't worry about that now. It's time to take out the trash and call an end to this week.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4136

I voted this morning. Like most local elections, the polling place was practically empty. There were only a few old people voting and most of them looked even older than I was. If you had a couple hundred good friends, you could probably win one of these low turnout elections. There were several initiatives on the ballot that were worded so ambiguously that it was hard to tell what you were voting for. When I see a lot of double neatives in the language of these initiatives, I am convinced that someone is trying to confuse me and make me vote the opposite of the way I intended. I seldom voted when I was younger, but my Mom finally convinced me that it was my civic duty. I still wonder though. I don't care who you support. There's just not a lot of honesty in politics.

As expected, it was really cold when we woke up this morning. It's pretty late in the year to experience near freezing weather. All is well though. The furnace is still working like a charm. I really should have brought the lawn mower battery inside last night. Forgetting to do this during a surprise cold spell is usually how I ruin these batteries. We'll see how it goes the next time I try to mow the grass. With my bad back and gimpy shoulder, I haven't had the nerve to try this yet.

My lost package still hasn't arrived. I've generally had pretty good luck with shipments so I thought that lost packages were just for other people. Several Christmas presents Janet mailed this year got lost and I keep hearing that unreliable mail is becoming a big problem. Maybe my luck has finally run out. The post office can't seem to find my package and neither can the shipper. Since I already paid for the memory chips, I'm sure that I'll eventually receive them. If the company has to send a duplicate shipment, I'm going to request UPS this time. I've lost faith in the post ofice.

Several of my photographer friends are already in Florida covering the upcoming Crew-2 launch. When I see their pictures on Facebook I can't help being a little envious. Most of the regulars live in the area and have gotten to know the folks that approve credentials. Even though I have gotten credentials to cover a number of launches, I still feel like an outsider. There's a big difference between going to Kennedy Space Center twenty times a year and going two times a year. This year, I'll be lucky if I can make it down there once. I wish getting press accreditation was easier, but then I wish everything was easier. Life just seems to be an uphill battle these days.

Janet took Dawn to the vet today to get her anal glands expressed and her nails trimmed. Dawn is healthy and I hope things like this are the only reasons she needs to go to the vet for a long time. I have so many bad memories of serious medical problems. Dealing with very sick dogs was one reason that Janet and I thought that we weren't going to get another dog after Dot and Dash died. Life is full of surprises though. I'm really glad we have Dawn in our life, even though she doesn't appear to like me.

I really do need to find another place to walk. My route has become so familiar that I think I could complete it with a blindfold on. I see a lot of the same people day after day, so I guess I'm not the only one leading a repetitive life. Even though it was chilly today, this is a great time of year to be outside. Everything is so green and new wildflowers appear every day. Perhaps I could make better use of my time, but I don't think so. Being outside is good. It certainly beats staring at this screen.

We'll see what tomorrow brings. I don't really have high expectations at this point. Maybe my package will arrive. Maybe I'll hear good news from NASA about the next launch I applied for. Maybe Dawn will stay in the kitchen with me while I eat breakfast. Naw. That will never happen.

Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4135

I slept well last night and my back is feeling better. This should have been enough to motivate me to get out of the house, but the car never left the driveway. Hey, I can always go vote and run my errands later. Oddly, my daily walks don't seem to count as "getting out of the house" anymore. These walks have become as firmly entrenched in an inflexible daily routine as the morning smoothie and the nightly blog post.

Don't think I wasn't busy however. Today was a day to pay bills. There were lots of them. I paid the bills online and then entered all the information in Quickbooks. Credit card bills take the longest, because I enter all the individual transactions as well. I don't know what it proves, but I think I've always been meticulous about keeping records. The Quickbooks files, the blog, the Fitbit statistics: they are all just records.

I also reserved a rent car for my trip to McDonald Observatory. The trip isn't that soon, but I keep reading articles about how rental cars are in short supply now. Even the rental car website urged me to make my reservation immediately, so I wouldn't be disappointed. I guess new cars at dealerships are in short supply as well. Blame the pandemic. Our supply chain apparently doesn't deal well with disruptions. Toilet paper, computer chips, my favorite cheese, Clorox wipes, and rental cars: it appears we are running out of everything.

I thought I'd take advantage of a free upgrade offer when I was reserving my car. Nope. The car I wanted doesn't qualify for an upgrade. The same thing happened a few weeks ago when I saw my running shoes on sale. Nope again. The brand was on sale, but not the particular shoe I wear for foot pain. This always happens. The things I like are never on sale. There's always some kind of camera equipment on sale, but I think I've paid full price for every lens I own.

Dawn was in a good mood today. We walked her early because Janet had things to do in the afternoon. She took the change of schedule well and didn't balk or freeze at all. I even thought she was going to walk longer for a while, but at the very end of her one mile loop, she turned and headed for home. Later in the day, Dawn sat out in the back yard with me for at least thirty minutes with no fear or hesitation whatsoever. She still won't eat her dinner if I'm out in the kitchen with her, but it's easy enough to go back to the office until she's finished. Whatever works is my motto. We all have issues and I really don't want to make life difficult for Dawn.

I spend enough time making life difficult for myself. Lately, I've been bothered that nobody is replying to my e-mails. NASA has never responded to my questions about accreditation. The magazines I write for haven't responded to queries about new articles. I haven't heard from my sister in several months. The computer memory I ordered is still lost as well. I probably just have too much time on my hands. Busy people don't spend nearly as much time writing as I do.

I'm glad I fixed the furnace. It's supposed to get down to near freezing tonight. What's that all about? All the plants that have been trying to recover from our big Winter freeze are now going to be hit with a late Spring frost. I could tell that a front was moving in when I took my long walk this afternoon. It was chilly, even thought the sky was clear and blue. With a light jacket, it was still an enjoyable walk. I picked up the pace quite a bit today and had very little foot pain. Not a bad day. Theres nothing big going on at the moment, but sometimes the little things are enough.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4134

How did it get to be Monday again? These weeks go so fast. Whenever we visit the Dalmatians at the kennel, I realize that Dawn is the perfect dogs for us. She is older and pretty subdued for a Dalmatian. Younger Dalmatians have so much energy. Charlie and Cooper are fun to play with, but I don't think I could keep up with these two for very long. Hopefully they will find homes with someone who has as much energy as they do.

I tried to find my lost memory chips today and was told that the post office doesn't consider anything lost until they've had it for at least fourteen days. OK. I'll wait a little longer. Since it only takes two days for mail to travel from the shipper's location to my house, I wonder what's going on for those other twelve days. Amazon Prime has spoiled me. Somehow I think that everything should arrive the next day now.

I also wrote NASA and politely asked why I was being rejected for certain launches. I get accepted for some launches and rejected for others, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the process. If I'm doing something wrong on my end, I'd like to know what it is. I think the articles I've written have been very good. What do I know though. If I can't consistently get press credentials, it is going to be very difficult for me to become a space journalist.

Maybe it would be easier for me to become a HVAC technician. The furnace repairs I made the other day are working well. This is a weird time of year. It's very cold around sunrise and when I hear the furnace running I know it's time to get up. The furnace continues running while I'm eating breakfast, but by mid-afternoon it is warm enough outside for the air conditioner to kick in. Every day for the past week we have had the furnace and the air conditioner running on the same day.

My back is still bothering me. I'm comfortable when I wake up, but the process of becoming upright changes everything. Yikes. Those "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials are starting to make sense now. Am I going to need a cane soon? I hope not, but it might be a good idea to have a few stashed around, just in case. My Dad had a ton of canes and I gave them all to the Goodwill when I cleared out his house. I should have kept a few.

At least I can still walk. Walking doesn't bother my back like it does my feet. It's bending over that bothers my back. If I stay on level ground and don't do anything stupid, a long walk still feels good. I've managed to convince myself that this type of exercise is the best thing for aging, tired bones. I hope nobody proves me wrong. I don't think I'm cut out for yoga, pilates, or lifting weights. You don't need a class or a gym or a trainer to take a walk. All you need is some free time. I've got plenty of that.

We'll see what happens tomorrow. Early voting has started for a local election. Maybe I'll go vote. I need to pick up some more duct tape at Home Depot as well. You can't ever run out of duct tape. Maybe Dawn will wake up and decide to be my best friend. That's a long shot, but it could happen.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4133

It was cold when I woke up this morning. I got up and looked at the furnace. Just as I expected, a red light was flashing. The furnace wouldn't ignite. I thought I was going to be able to avoid fixing the furnace this Spring, but I guess my luck ran out. If the furnace won't light, the problem is almost always a dirty flame sensor. It's not hard to fix. It's just a nuisance. I shut the furnace off, unscrewed several access panels so I could reach the sensor and got out my sandpaper. Sanding the flame sensor cleans it so that it will turn on the gas whenever the pilot light comes on. I've done this many times, but I wish someone had told me how to fix this earlier. When I first bought the house, the HVAC guys would come out, tinker around for a while, and then charge me a lot of money. I didn't know that all they were doing was cleaning the flame sensor.

An hour later I had everything put back together and we had heat again. This fix ought to last until next winter. There can't possibly be too many more cold mornings left. I was actually surprised that it was 40 degrees this morning because later in the day I was wearing shorts. That's what happens this time of year. The furnace comes on in the morning and the air conditioner comes on in the afternoon.

After breakfast we took Dawn to her alternate park for a walk and then got ice cream cones on the way home. This is getting to be a Sunday ritual. Dawn gets excited to do something different and seems to really enjoy these outings. We had one minor problem when she appeared lost at one point and refused to move. We thought the new park was familiar to her by now, but apparently not. To get Dawn started again, Janet sits about ten feet in front of Dawn and calls her. Dawn starts moving forward in small, jerky steps and finally she starts walking normally again. By the time we were eating ice cream cones, she had probably totally forgotten about the incident.

Since bulky trash day is tomorrow, I thought I'd spend a little more time cleaning up the yard. Anything I couldn't take care of today will have to wait until next month. I cleared weeds and brush from an area in front of the house and quickly discovered that weeding is not a good activity for someone with a bad back.    I have a lot more sympathy now for people with back problems. A bad back and almost any type of yard work isn't a good combination. I do feel a little better than I did yesterday, so hopefully this problem is just temporary.

After a short nap, I took my daily walk. I never was all that fast, but now I'm walking slower than ever. I'll have to forget about Fitbit goals for a while, but at least I'm still moving. The park was really crowded today. There were Little League games on the baseball diamonds and lots of people having picnics. There are always people feeding bread to the ducks despite signs saying that bread is bad for ducks and that you should feed them dry corn or peas instead. I see messages on the Internet all the time about bread being bad for ducks, but apparently nobody listens.

The extra memory I ordered for my laptop is apparently lost in the mail. I'll have to check on that tomorrow. I also need to reserve a car for my trip to the observatory next month. I keep reading articles that say rental cars are in short supply now. Apparently most of the rental companies sold off excess inventory during the pandemic and now that people are traveling again, they don't have enough cars. I won't have to worry about getting a rent car in Florida for a while. I can't figure out how to get NASA to reinstate my press credentials.

All in all it was a very nice day. Nothing exciting happened, but the yard looks a little nicer and we had a delicious dinner. They say that the Mars helicopter will fly tomorrow. The next Starship prototype and the Space X Crew-2 mission will launch later in the week. I feel out of the loop now, but maybe I can get back to attending some of these launches later in the year. 

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4132

We watched Prince Phillip's funeral while we were eating breakfast this morning. It felt like the end of an era. Phillip was the last of my Dad's generation. He was one of the very last World War II vets. He certainly was among the last to place any value on dignity and tradition. It was nice to see a nation that still reveres its history and traditions rather than try to tear them down and erase them. The monarchy may be a relic of a bygone era, but so am I. God save the Queen.

Phillip certainly had good taste in cars. This is the first and probably last time I will ever see a Land Rover Defender used as a hearse. They say Phillip chose the Defender because it was practical and unassuming. Of course he had the vehicle custom made to his own specifications and it was probably much more expensive than any ordinary hearse. Royal prerogative I guess. I was amused that at one point during a solemn and silent part of the ceremony all I could hear was the noisy motor of the Defender. I miss my old Defender and I miss the bygone era it represents. What comes next is anybody's guess, but I suspect that it is going to be a dystopian horror show.

It took me several stores to find my favorite beer while I was grocery shopping this morning. I've gotten hooked on small batch craft beers, but unfortunately some of them don't stay on the shelves with any regularity. I hope they are still brewing this beer. I went for years with having any alcohol at all when I had Hepatitis-C, but now having a single beer with dinner each night has become one of my daily pleasures. 

My back is still giving me problems. Janet has had back problems for years and tells me that I have to be patient and continue doing stretching exercises. It's hell getting old. You are supposed to lift things using your knees instead of bending over and lifting with your back. Easier said than done for a person with bad knees. One of my knees is so bad that I can't put much weight on it at all. There is definitely not a spring in my step anymore. If you see an old man shuffling slowly through the park, it is probably me.

I'm not going to let a few aches and pains stop me from walking. I've noticed that the walks don't actually make anything worse, so I'm assuming that staying active is helpful. There are dozens of commercials on TV for products that eliminate the aches and pains of aging. Many of them seem to have terrible side effects. I manage my blood pressure and control my cholesterol and A1C, but that's where the pills stop. If your joints are wearing out, there is going to be some discomfort. I'd rather live with it than get a knee or hip replacement. Eating healthy food and staying active still seems like a good plan to me.

I went and got Chinese take out for dinner again tonight. Why are there so many cars on the road at 6PM? Every time I go out it seems like rush hour. I suspect that this is only going to get worse. I've never seen so many out of state plates on cars. People are moving here in droves from failing cities in other parts of the country. I hate to see all the congestion, but it's still better to live in a successful, vibrant city than in a failing, crumbling one. 

Bella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4131

I'm falling apart. I threw out my back last night when I was emptying the dehumidifier water bucket. I thought I'd feel better in the morning, but I woke up with one more in a long list of aches and pains. I'm sure many people have a lot more serious back problems, but this was a new one for me. Hopefully, this isn't a sign of things to come. 

It was raining hard when I woke up this morning. I turned on the pumps and nothing happened. I could hear the pumps running on the roof, but no water was coming out of the hose. This was unfortunate because it meant I needed to climb up on the roof and investigate. I finished my breakfast and waited for the rain to subside a bit before attempting to fix the pumps. I already knew what had happened. Every Spring, tons of catkins fall from our Oak trees and cover the roof. These catkins get sucked into the pumps and clog them. It's an easy fix, but you have to go up on the roof first. 

For the first time I can remember I had a difficult time scaling the rock wall leading to the roof. My back hurt. My arms felt weak. I got the distinct feeling that my roof climbing days were coming to a close. I unclogged both pumps, got the water running again, and went back inside. There was no point in doing anything further until the rain completely subsided. Maybe it will get hot again and the standing water will just evaporate. At any rate, I have no desire to go up on the roof anymore. The water can wait.

There isn't much to do on a rainy day. I don't like watching television and I don't like driving in the rain. Work used to keep me busy on rainy days, but work projects are few and far between these days. I have mixed feelings about getting shut out of the Crew-2 launch. Planning for a launch would definitely give me something to do, but I can't really afford a trip right now anyway. Realistically, I should be glad that I didn't get credentialed this time. I have time to work on getting back to Kennedy Space Center and hopefully the next time I get approved, travel won't be an issue.

I was glad when the rain finally stopped because Dawn clearly didn't want to take a nap with me. When Janet returned home we took Dawn on her short daily walk and then I continued onward. I knew today was going to be slow and didn't even bother to track my time. I don't know why I even bothered walking today. The weather was chilly and I felt stiff and painful. Right or wrong, it's important for me to keep moving. I eventually completed my route and returned home. This time I did take a nap.

We didn't get any mail today. Somehow this always seems to happen when the weather is nasty. The Postal Service Creed doesn't seem to mean much anymore. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" Nope. I don't think that's the creed anymore. I do a better job of completing my appointed rounds than our mail carrier.

We had chili and cornbread for dinner. Chili gives me heartburn but it seemed like the perfect meal for a cold, rainy day. It's a shame that the body refuses to cooperate as you get older. I used to have an iron stomach and could walk for days. I guess I should be glad that anything still works at all. By any objective standards, I'm still pretty healthy. It just doesn't feel that way sometimes.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4130

I took my long walk right after breakfast this morning because the forecast predicted rain in the afternoon. The forecast wasn't totally wrong, because it is raining now. The pumps on the roof aren't working well, but I'll worry about that later. For now I'm hoping that the rain will help rejuvenate all the dead plants in our backyard.

The replacement for the video component I inadvertently threw away arrived this afternoon. I have no idea whether I will actually use this since my video production days are effectively over, but I feel like I have rectified my mistake. This thing has been out off production for years and I might have found one of the last remaining examples. Janet tells me not to store it in a box on a shelf. I'll start throwing away boxes again some day and that's how the last one met its demise.

I discovered that you can now watch your UPS truck on a map as it slowly makes it's way toward your house. This is mesmerizing if you haven't got anything better to do, but it is frustrating as well. I watched the truck drive in circles around my neighborhood several times, always turning away just before it reached my house. Somehow I am always at the very end of the delivery run. I'm not sure why UPS put GPS trackers in all their trucks. Probably just because they can.

Dallas has a glut of vaccine now. There are more shots available than there are people wanting to take them. Just a few weeks ago people were clamoring for appointments and now there are big banners in grocery stores advertising "free shots, no appointments necessary." Things change quickly in the modern world. I don't think life will ever return to normal however. There will be more Zoom calls and fewer people working in offices. Curbside pickup will be permanent for some people just because it is easier. A lot of businesses will never return, including some of my favorite restaurants. I'll probably never go to the post office like I used to. Even UPS delivery has changed. I used to drive to the main distribution center to get my packages. It was easy and I got my items one day earlier. Now you don't have a choice. The truck comes to your house whether you like it or not. You can reroute your delivery to one of those little UPS stores scattered around town, but it costs extra and adds another day to your delivery time.

I got a notice that Feedburner is going to discontinue sending the blog to e-mail subscribers on July1. I'm not certain how many read the blog this way, but I'm sure there are still some. Little by little a lot of tools bloggers used to use are going away. My fear is that one day Google will decide to discontinue hosting blogs entirely and blogspot.com will just disappear. It could happen. Google pulled the plug on Google+ and it abruptly disappeared. Blogs just aren't popular now. I hope Google keeps blogspot alive. It would be just my luck that they would pull the plug on Day 4995 and I would never reach my goal.

I paid a bunch of online bills this afternoon and managed to get everything entered into Quickbooks without making a mistake. I wish I didn't feel compelled to keep track of everything. It takes a lot of time. I've been entering information into Quickbooks for fifteen to twenty years and I'm not even sure how to access the early years. Is the information even still there? There are mountains of paper records in the storage warehouse. It would take me weeks to find anything specific, if I could find it at all. This blog is a pretty detailed record of my daily life. Why do I record and document everything? I'll probably never know.

I used to envy dogs because I thought they lived in the moment. Dawn is haunted by memories though. There is no other way to explain her behavior. Maybe I record things because I don't have many memories. Sometimes the past floats by as I'm going to sleep, but it seems like a dream. Did it even really happen?

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4129

I'm still puzzled that I didn't get credentialed to attend the Space X Crew-2 launch. I wrote my editor to see if NASA had even bothered to contact the magazine. Before getting press credentials NASA has to verify that you actually have an assignment from your media outlet. The whole process is way too complicated. Maybe I'm doing something wrong when I submit my applications. Hopefully my editor can help me sort this all out. It just makes no sense that I'm accepted sometimes and rejected at other times for no apparent reason.

I wrote a few more letters while I was still in a letter writing mood and then I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription they've been calling me about. Somehow my prescription refills have gotten totally out of sync with the rate I am actually taking the pills. I now have an 180 day supply of three different pills. I hadn't even started using the last 90 day refills before this latest refill kicked in. Everything is so automated now that it is hard to change anything. My pharmacist and I both agreed that it would be easier for me to just take the refills and save them until needed than to put in a change order. We tried that once and a prescription I need got accidentally discontinued. 

This is why I always do my best to learn how to fix things myself. Unfortunately, fixing a furnace is easier than fixing a medical record. We live in a world where cashiers don't even know how to make change. People go to a website and click a few buttons to make something happen without having any idea how the whole process works. I'm pretty sure that I'm taking the correct prescriptions but some of them have been listed incorrectly in my medical records for years. I predict that in a few years from now, some of your doctors will have no idea whether you took the Covid vaccine or not. The only record you have is that little card they gave you when you got your shot. How long is it going to take you to lose that?

Tomorrow I am supposed to get a package that the UPS website says was delivered before it was shipped. I'm curious whether I'll actually get the package. We'll see. I've given up on trying to sort this out. Nobody has been able to explain why the tracking number tells me that the package was delivered last month to someone in New Jersey. This whole situation seems very similar to my incorrect medical records. UPS tells me that everything is fine and just to ignore the website. My doctor never even looks at my online medical records. He just asks me over and over again what pills I am taking every time I visit.

Today was uneventful, but what else is new. As always, I drank my morning smoothie while catching up on the dismal state of the world on cable news. I can't stand to watch anything for more than thirty seconds, so I'm constantly switching channels. I check my e-mail and the mailbox outside after breakfast. The electronic world is nothing but junk and so is the physical world. I'll usually block a few telemarketers on my phone and then I'm done. No wonder I like walking so much.

It's getting pretty warm. I don't think I'll be wearing jackets on my walks for quite a while. Hopefully Dawn will be OK with the heat. She doesn't walk far now, so I think she'll be fine. I'm not so sure about myself. I was sweating when I returned home today and it's only April. I don't even want to think about what it's going to feel like in July. The Summer heat may be what ends up getting me back to the gym. There is a nice indoor running track at the gym and the building is air conditioned. Sounds pretty good right now.

Flash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day