Day 4215

It was a little cooler today. That made it easier to do some things I've been avoiding. I finally got around to mowing the grass. It grows quickly since we've had a wet Spring. I don't like mowing the front yard now, since traffic has gotten heavy on our street. When I've got the mower down by the curb, cars and big trucks will barrel past me at forty miles an hour. This constant traffic makes it hard to get out of the driveway too. Things have changed a lot in thirty years.

I was tired when I finished mowing both the front and back yards, but the weather wasn't bad today so I decided that I'd go ahead and take my long walk after a short nap. Dawn got the best part of the day when we took our sunrise walk early this morning, although the rest of the day was much better than I expected. It was overcast with a pleasant breeze. There was a chance of rain in the forecast, but all we got were a few light sprinkles. Actually the light showers helped keep me cool while I was walking. It felt more like a mist than an actual rain shower.

Mowing the grass and taking a long walk seemed to eat up my entire day. I didn't do much else today. We heard from the vet and Dawn does have bacteria in her urine. The second sample we took to be analyzed looked exactly the same as the first. Janet picked up the antibiotics the vet prescribed and we'll see if we can get her back to normal. At least Dawn still loves her new food. I guess you solve one problem and another one takes its place.

I'm having a hard time staying motivated. My days consist of deciding what to eat and when to walk. I probably won't even try to go back to Kennedy Space Center until Artemis-1 is ready to launch toward the end of the year. Rental cars are almost impossible to find in Florida now and hotels have gotten quite expensive. There are a lot of Starlink launches this Summer, but nothing that really captures my interest. I hope I don't lose the contacts I've worked so hard to build down at the space center, but it is what it is. It's a lot easier to go out to McDonald Observatory when I feel a need to get out of town. It's a lot more peaceful as well. I have no real desire to visit a big city again.

I should be working hard to master PixInsight and the other astrophotography software I was introduced to at the last workshop I attended. I have these application on my computer, but seldom open them. Truthfully, taking pictures of dogs is more fun than taking pictures of stars. I love staring up at the sky on a clear, dark night but I think I enjoy visual astronomy more than astrophotography. Astrophotography is very technical in nature. I think I enjoy the spontaneous side of photography more. I loved shooting fashion back in the day. I'll continue to work on becoming a better astrophotographer though. It's definitely something I haven't mastered yet.

Time passes so quickly now. It will be the middle of July soon and 2021 still just feels like an addendum to 2020. Has anything actually happened this year? It's time to make a grocery list again. I bet the stores will be more crowded tomorrow. I'm not sure where everyone went over the holiday, but they're definitely all back now.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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