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

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