Day 4127

It's Monday again. We got another Kong football for Charlie and Cooper to replace the one that got destroyed. Both dogs love to fetch and catch things and have boundless energy. They were delighted with their new toy. Charlie and Cooper are smart, very athletic, and I keep thinking that they would respond well to agility training. I keep hoping that one of these days when we visit the kennel, we'll discover that at least one of them has found their forever home.

I was expecting rain today. We were under a severe weather forecast for a while but nothing materialized. I'm glad when that happens. At this time of year storms can pop up out of nowhere. Sometimes they disappear quickly as well. By the time I took my long walk, I wasn't worried about rain at all. I was more worried about getting a sunburn. Today was very hot for early April.

I decided to upgrade my laptop and install an operating system that will run the astrophotography processing software I need. Step one is to replace the current 4 GB of memory with 16 GB of memory. This is an easy upgrade and I wish I'd done it earlier. Every time I remove the tiny screws that secure the back of the computer in place, I'm afraid I'm going to strip the threads. Apple won't sell you replacement screws. If I am successful at adding the additional memory, I'll create two partitions on the hard drive with a separate system on each. In theory these dual boot systems are easy to create and quite safe to use. I still worry that I'll, screw something up though. I've certainly done that before.

After I ordered two 8 GB memory sticks, I found a replacement for the video component that I accidentally threw away a few months ago and ordered that as well. I may never use this gear, but I hate not having it. I also feel stupid for throwing something away in what I thought was an empty box. The New York audio shop where I found the part told me that had only one left. Everybody tells you that they only have one left these days. The star tracker people told me that they only had one unit left as well. I guess these guys know what they are doing. This psychology certainly works with me. I'm usually the first to buy the last available widget.

I seem to feel perpetually tired these days. Sometimes I wonder if I might have had Covid and never even realized it. Since literally everything under the sun is a potential side effect from Covid, it's pretty easy to attribute anything abnormal to the disease. Probably, I'm just getting old. Trust me, 70 is a lot different than 40. My joints are toast, but I'm going to continue walking and probably even return to the gym. I'm convinced that you start to go downhill the minute you stop being active.

I have a feeling that I may be able to postpone any further furnace repairs until next Fall. This morning when I woke up I heard the air conditioner instead of the furnace. The temperature was in the high eighties today. Our gas bill will go down for a while, but our electric bill will go through the ceiling this Summer. We have a very small house and I can only imagine what all the people in the huge houses that are popping up all over the neighborhood pay for electricity.

Dawn doesn't like me to be in the kitchen with her so I've started going back to the office after I fix her meals. This seems to work and it is much easier than trying to figure out what is going through her head. Dawn is my buddy when we are hanging out on the bed together. She's scared of me in the kitchen though and won't come in the office at all. Go figure. All is fine when we're outdoors. Dawn loves being outdoors when the weather is nice. Dogs are just as complicated as people. Luckily they are nicer than most people.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day