Day 4571

It's hard to believe that it's already the last day of June. Where has this year gone? It feels more of a survival year than a year filled with milestones, but maybe surviving in these times actually is a milestone. 

I'm certainly getting plenty of sleep lately, but Dawn had me worried for a little bit last night. I woke up feeling the mattress vibrating and it was caused by Dawn shivering and shaking. She then sat up and it looked like she was going to throw up. I got some towels out of the bathroom because I knew I probably wouldn't be able to get her to move. Then I sat with her for a while and she calmed down and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. I used to think her shaking was just fear, but now I'm wondering if she might have had a mild seizure. Dawn has had a seizure before when we first got her, but it was much milder than those experienced by some of our other dogs. Maybe I worry too much. Shivering and shaking at times seems to be part of Dawn's personality. She even does this when Janet is home.

We didn't get an early start today, but I still took my long walk in the park. I just don't feel like going to the gym or driving anywhere. Dawn and I have established a pretty good daily routine. I always make sure to take care of all the morning events before I leave on my walk. Dawn seems happy with this arrangement. I don't even try to get her to come out to the kitchen for breakfast anymore. She likes me bringing her breakfast back to her in the bedroom. I guess it's a dogs equivalent of breakfast in bed.

We really need some rain. The park is looking pretty dry right now. Our yard is OK, but that's because I've been more diligent about watering the grass. There isn't a lot to look at in the park now. I'm basically just walking to get my steps. I'm always surprised to see quite a few other people out walking or running on hot days like this. Texans must love punishment. I managed to keep up a pretty good pace today. I still can't figure out why I walk faster outdoors than on the more comfortable indoor track at the gym.

I've been trying to get clarification from NASA about my status for the upcoming Artemis-1 launch. The whole process has been more difficult than I thought it would be. People's job descriptions change frequently at the space center and when I'm finally able to connect with someone, it's usually the wrong person. I usually get the name of another person to contact and the whole process begins again. At least I'm getting answers to my e-mails now. For a while it felt like my mail was just going into a black hole. I think I've still got plenty of time to get credentialed. This launch has been postponed so many times that I wouldn't be surprised if it was postponed again. The current schedule is for a late August or early September launch. We'll have to see.

Dawn doesn't get upset when I take naps in the bedroom now. I can stay for an indefinite length of time and she just continues her own napping. With each passing day, she seems to show a little less fear. That's why I'm thinking that last night's episode might have been a very mild seizure instead of a panic attack. We're still a long way from becoming best buddies, but we're getting along. Dawn is definitely a survivor. She's been through a lot worse than this in her past life. I wish she knew what I knew. Janet is coming back and we are well past the halfway point in the vacation.

I didn't watch a movie this afternoon. I can't say that I did anything productive, but the day went quickly. I may have to go to the grocery store tomorrow. I've still got some of the pot roast left, but the refrigerator is looking pretty empty. I'm kind of hooked on having a salad with dinner now and I need to get some fresh greens. I may need to get some more milk for my cereal as well. Such excitement. Maybe this is why fewer people are reading the blog these days.

I've taken this weeks trash out to the curb and the can seemed almost empty. Not much trash this week. It's kind of amazing how much more activity there is around the house when Janet is home. No wonder Dawn seemed bored.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4570

No early start today. Dawn and I slept in again. I was glad to be back on a regular schedule, but my long walk was warmer this morning. My daily routine is more complicated now, but I try to do everything in the proper order. The first thing I do when I get up is fill Dawn's water bowls. Then I unlock the back door and gate and fix Dawn's breakfast. If she won't come out to the kitchen to eat, I take her bowl back to the bedroom and then fix my own breakfast. 

After I finish eating and wash the dishes, we go down to the meadow behind out house so she can poop and pee. I remember to take poop bags with me now. When Janet is home, this is when we typically take our sunrise walk, but Dawn wants to come straight back to the house now. When we return Dawn gets her morning meds. We don't use pill pockets because Dawn likes to take her pills with cream cheese. I've finally learned how to make the bed with Dawn sitting on top because she is very reluctant to leave her favorite place.

This morning I thought the hot water heater was broken because I hadn't heard is come on in a while. It felt cooler to the touch as well. It turned out that nothing was wrong. I just haven't been using a lot of hot water lately. I haven't run the dishwasher or done any laundry since Janet left on vacation. I use so few dishes that I just wash them by hand. There isn't nearly enough dirty laundry to run the washing machine yet. I haven't even been taking out the trash every evening this week. Every two or three days is plenty. I maintain a pretty low profile on my own and still don't know if this is a good thing or pathetic.

Since I didn't get started on my long walk until a little after 9 AM today, the sun was already high in the sky. There was a little breeze when I was near the shoreline, but it wasn't enough to cool me off. I don't know how the guys working on the new bike trail can stand the heat. They are out in the sun all day. I didn't see many ducks this morning, but the Monk Parakeets and Purple Martins were active. Both of these birds are very loud. Nobody really knows where the Monk Parakeets came from. They aren't migratory and typically are found in South America. Some think a family pet got loose, but that doesn't explain why around a 100 of the colorful green birds live at the lake now.

Dawn usually eats lunch with Janet, but I don't have a lunch routine. I typically don't eat lunch at all. I've tried to duplicate Janet's routine, but Dawn won't come out to the kitchen with me. She loves sliced turkey and cheese though. So I always take a little bit of turkey and cheese back to the bed for her. She loves carrots too so I always save a few carrot slices from my pot roast for her. Dawn definitely doesn't live on table scraps. Her real meals consist of a special prescription diet designed to prevent bladder stones from forming. A little Potassium Citrate powder is added to her evening meal and a Probiotic supplement is added to her morning meal. Janet has researched Dawn's diet carefully with our vet. I just follow directions and make sure she is eating the right amount of everything at the right time. I'm a forgetful person, so Janet always puts Dawn's meds in labeled little plastic baggies before she goes on vacation. Each day there is a bag for morning meds and another bag for evening meds. I appreciate this. After taking her meds, I mark them as being taken on a calendar in the kitchen.

It was a slow afternoon, so I watched another movie called I Think We're Alone Now. This atypical end of the world film featured a guy who actually liked the idea of being the last person on earth until he discovered that he wasn't alone after all. Considering that the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was directed by the same women who also directed the first three episodes of The Handmaidens Tale, it didn't get good reviews. Another film I never heard of until I found it on Amazon Prime. I don't want to make a habit of watching a movie on my computer every afternoon. I need to find something constructive to do tomorrow.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4569

I woke up early this morning, so I got up and ate my breakfast before getting Dawn out of bed. I think I woke up so early because I went to bed early. I've been getting a lot of sleep lately. By the time I finished feeding Dawn, made the bed, and took her down to the meadow behind our house to do her business, it was still really early. It seemed like I should just go back to bed, but I was wide awake. I decided to make the most of the situation and began my long walk before 7 AM this morning.

If I was more of a morning person, I'd do this every day. It was still pleasantly cool outside. I was able to complete my entire six mile route without feeling like I was in a sauna. I even saw a few of my favorite ducks this morning. They were enjoying the cool weather too before going into hiding when the sun became oppressive later in the day. My feet hurt a bit today, but it comes and goes. I certainly have plenty of time to rest when I'm home. The only trouble with being so efficient is what do you do with the rest of the day? I still didn't feel like leaving the house or starting any home improvement projects. I guess that's why Facebook exists. I can still waste a lot of time looking at pictures of dogs and admiring much better astrophotography pictures than I'll ever take. I'm definitely not spending a lot of time listening to the news. There is nothing uplifting about current events.

I had so much time on my hands today that I decided to watch a movie. Amazon Prime is my friend and Science Fiction is always my go-to genre. The film I picked today was the Denis Villeneuve film Arrival. Hey, I liked what he did with Blade Runner 2049. Arrival is an interesting film about how language shapes reality. It definitely wasn't your usual alien invasion movie. The aliens in this movie have the ability to see all of time, all at once. Past, present, and future all all mixed together. The aliens know that in 3,000 years they will need help from humanity, so they come to earth to begin sharing their perceptions through their language. The lead character is a linguist who is tasked with figuring out what the aliens want. Her own perception of reality changes as she begins to learn the alien language. This film questions our instinct to destroy things we don't understand and does a pretty good job of showing how language alters our perception of the world. To me, this is a much better movie than Independence Day where we just blow up the aliens. I guess it isn't surprising that language is interesting to me. I'm a writer. I guess what is surprising is that I hadn't even heard of this movie until I started looking for something to watch this afternoon. I don't keep up with the movies very much.

Dawn seemed a bit more normal today. I still had to bring her breakfast back to the bedroom this morning, but she eagerly went out to the kitchen to eat her dinner. She gets a 10 PM evening snack that she was pretty excited about as well. I took a long nap this afternoon and she didn't leave the room. I think we are making progress. It's too bad she doesn't feel comfortable taking walks with me. I don't want to push my luck though. If Dawn is happy around the house, that's fine with me.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4568

We didn't make much progress today. Dawn didn't want to come out to the kitchen to eat and I had to take her meals back to the bedroom. She did eat though and took all her meds. At one point I found her hiding in a corner of the bedroom for no apparent reason. A strange noise must have scared her. I took her outside to show her that everything was normal, and then she was fine again. We did get all the essentials done today, but this wasn't one of Dawn's better days. Hopefully, she'll be feeling a little more adventurous tomorrow.

It was a lot cooler this morning. When I woke up the temperature was still in the mid 70's. It was an easy choice to take a long walk instead of going to the gym. I walked right after breakfast and was out of the house before 8 AM. Before eating breakfast I hooked up the second sprinkler I bought and watered the front lawn. I also watered the plants inside the atrium. I used to do this from inside the atrium, but now I just water them through the screen wire wall on the back side of the space. It's just too much trouble to open the broken sliding glass door these days.

My walk was enjoyable this morning because of the lower temperatures, but there wasn't a lot to see. The Spring wildflowers are starting to disappear and most of the animals and birds are in hiding. The fancy new bike path that is being constructed through the park is almost complete now. It looks like they are going to meet their July deadline. My feet aren't hurting as bad lately. Maybe they are just becoming numb. Summer walks aren't nearly as enjoyable as the ones I take in the Spring and Fall. I'm still getting the steps I need though. I think discipline is important. If I only did things I liked to do, I probably wouldn't do anything at all.

The Benro folks wanted me to run some tests on the star tracker to help isolate the problems I've been having lately. I ran the tests they wanted, but the camera didn't disconnect today. Actually, everything seemed to work fine, which baffled me. The phone app and firmware versions were exactly the same as they were before when I was having a ton of problems. This thing is full of mysteries and it is still difficult to talk with the Chinese manufacturers. It gives me something to do on a slow day though. When all the bugs are eventually worked out, it will be an amazing piece of gear to take out to the observatory. I could use it here of course, but there isn't much to see with all the city light pollution.

It was supposed to rain today, but it didn't even get that cloudy. I would welcome a little rain at this point. The yard is getting really dry and without a sprinkler system I need to remember when to water everything. Too much water is just as bad as too little and I definitely don't have a green thumb. I'll make an effort though. We had a wet Spring this year and the yard still looks pretty nice.

Dawn seems a little depressed. I wish she wasn't so dependent on Janet, but there's not much I can do. I make sure she gets her meals at the appropriate time, keep her water bowls filled, and take her out to pee at regular intervals. I'd like to see a little more tail wagging, but she's safe and well taken care of. I was hoping that she'd be more relaxed today, but there's always tomorrow. The last time Janet went on vacation, Dawn eventually did begin to relax. It took forever though.

I'll probably take another early walk tomorrow. The forecast says that the temperature will only be 72 degrees at sunrise tomorrow. I need to take advantage of these cooler mornings while I can. 

Rascal is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4567

Dawn seems a little calmer today. She still doesn't want to leave the safety of the bedroom, but she will come out to the kitchen to eat her meals, and walk down to the meadow behind our house to do her business. Today, all I had to say was "dinner's ready" and she ran right out to her bowl to eat. This is an improvement over yesterday.

I still need to remember to fill her water bowls frequently during the day and make sure she takes her meds at the proper time. Dawn and I both live by a fairly rigid schedule, so we're working on getting everything coordinated.  I think we're doing pretty well. Dawn still doesn't like me in the bedroom with her during the day, but is perfectly comfortable sharing the bed with me at night. It's always been this way and I still don't have an explanation.

Since my gym wasn't open today, I took my long walk right after breakfast. I probably should have left the house earlier, but Dawn and I slept in this morning. Neither of us are early birds. The temperature was still in the mid 80's around 9 AM but climbed quickly during my walk. I don't see many ducks and geese anymore. I don't know where they're hiding to get out of the heat, but they must have found a good place. No such luck for me. I was able to complete my entire route, even though I was getting pretty hot toward the end. I probably should take these long walks before I eat breakfast, but I doubt that I'd have much of an appetite when I got back. I'd probably feel more like throwing up. I'm going to have to make the decision on whether to walk or go to the gym just about every day this summer. It's a tough choice. I don't like to drive in the city, but I don't like to return home drenched in sweat after a walk either. 

I felt better after a shower, but running the shower raises the humidity in the house. I don't like that either. Basically, I just don't like anything about summers in Texas. I remember summers in Colorado and Northern Idaho were much nicer. Maybe just being younger was nicer. I think Dawn has the right idea. She basically just lies in bed all day next to an air condition vent. The bedroom is one of the coolest rooms in the house and the bed is a lot more comfortable than the couch and chairs in the living room. No wonder she doesn't want to share this room. It's the best room in the house.

I still haven't found much to do during the day. I've been avoiding fixing things around the house because I've already done all the easy things. The only things left are difficult tasks with a high risk of failure. I think most of these things can wait for a while. I really need to get the factory recall scheduled for my car, but I'm dreading calling the dealership. They stopped offering free loaner cars after the chip shortage decimated their new and used car inventory. I think they just sold most of the loaner cars. At any rate, the last time they promised me a loaner car, they ended up sending me home in a Uber. Boo. Even though I hate driving, I hate being without a car even more.

It didn't really seem like Sunday today without Dawn's Sunday outing and a trip to the ice cream store. We'll resume these activities when Janet returns. Dawn's a smart dog. Unless her entire support team is around, she feels much safer staying close to home. I can't blame her. I kind of feel the same way.

Derrick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4566

Dawn and I made it through the first day OK. She was reluctant to eat her breakfast this morning, but finally decided she was hungry when I added a little gravy to her bowl. She did much better with dinner tonight. She's taken her meds and we're still working on getting her outside to poop. Things that were easy when Janet was home are a bit more difficult now. I'd say all in all we're doing fine.

I got groceries much earlier than usual this morning. I should do this more often. The stores weren't crowded at all. My list wasn't long this week, but there were still a few things I needed. I don't know why I  always worry that I'm going to have car problems when I'm on my own. Probably because occasionally I do have car problems when I least expect it. All went well though, and I was back home again before we're usually finished with breakfast on the weekends.

I thought about going on a long walk this morning, but it was way too hot. Dawn didn't get a sunrise walk because she didn't want one. When Janet is gone, she does her business as quickly as possible and heads straight back to the house. That's OK with me. The last thing I want is to have her freeze in place or start acting weird when we are far from home.

Since it was already near 100 degrees when I finished my grocery shopping I wisely decided not to attempt a long walk today. I went to the gym instead. Hey, the car worked well for grocery shopping so I figured it would work well again. My gym is never crowded on Saturday. This seems a bit counterintuitive to me, but I always like an empty gym. I shot baskets for a while and then walked long enough on the indoor track to keep my Fitbit happy. I think I exercise more to keep consistent stats than to actually improve anything. There are a lot more serious people at the gym than me, but I'm still probably getting some benefit from this. It's always good to keep moving.

I wrote a letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. I wouldn't need these letters if she read the blog. That's a lost cause though. I may pretend to be a Luddite but she's the real deal. No complaints about writing letters though. Writing letters is good. It's better for the soul than adding three or four emojis to the end of a text message. I used to keep up a running correspondence with at least half a dozen people. Now it's down to this one letter a month.

Dawn isn't going to get an ice cream cone tomorrow. She seldom rides in my car and would be terrified if I tried to take her somewhere without Janet. She seemed terrified just going down to the meadow behind our house to pee this evening. Hopefully she will start to relax soon, but it will probably take a couple of more days.

I don't have any big plans for tomorrow. No little plans either. I'm going to have to start my long walk really early to avoid the heat. Going to the gym isn't an option because it is closed on Sunday. This would actually be a good time to binge watch movies on Netflix, but I'm not that kind of guy. I'd rather lie on the couch and stare at the ceiling than watch movies on TV. Maybe I'll fiddle with the star tracker again. That's definitely still unfinished business.

Shiner is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4565

Our first vacation day has gone pretty well. Dawn is never a happy camper when Janet isn't around, but she did all the important things today. She ate her dinner, took her meds, and went down to the meadow behind our house to do her business. I think she knew what was going on as soon as she saw Janet's suitcase. Dawn is a very smart dog.

We thought we'd try to make the day as normal as possible by still giving Dawn her normal sunrise walk before Janet left for the airport. We had to leave well before sunrise this morning and were a little worried about encountering coyotes in the park. Everything went well though and the sky brightened quickly. When we left the house we got to see the rare alignment of the planets that I've been hearing about recently. Mercury was too near the horizon to see, but Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were all clearly visible. There was also a nice crescent moon between Venus and Mars.

I'm glad I wasn't the one traveling today. Travel has become very stressful with all the flight delays and cancelations. Almost every day I read sad stories about people who missed a wedding or a cruise because of an unexpected flight cancelation. Luckily, Janet did reach her destination. Even Southwest Airlines, which I have always thought was the most trouble free way to fly, has pilots picketing Love Field now. Flying has become a giant mess for a multitude of reasons. What else is new. Everything these days is a giant mess for a multitude of reasons.

I took a long walk this morning instead of going to the gym. Since we got up so early, I was able to leave the house before 8 AM. This helped, but it still got hot alarmingly quickly. I had to change my route because a construction crew was working on one of the bridges I always cross. They were putting up barricades as I arrived and I asked one of the workers if I would be able to return over this same bridge in about an hour. Nope. It was going to be completely closed to all traffic for at least four hours. Since crossing this bridge was the only way home, I wisely decided to turn around and continue my walk on the other side of the lake. I walked the same number of miles today. Just in a different direction.

I didn't use the car today because I'm always nervous about driving when Janet is away. Who would I call if I had car problems? This is probably irrational thinking because I'll still need to go to the grocery store this weekend. I need orange juice, milk, beer, and some more fresh fruit. The pot roast Janet made will probably last me most of the week.

Since the only thing I had to do today was fret about Dawn, I decided to update the star tracker again. The last firmware update went well, but this new one had problems. Now my camera randomly disconnects from the tracker again, just like it did in the very beginning. It's frustrating being a Beta tester. I documented the problem the best I could and sent all the information to Benro customer support. Since they fixed the problem before, I'm sure they'll eventually fix it again. I wish they'd just decide that the project was done when I had the tracker working. We're a long way away from that unfortunately.

Dawn has to go outside and pee one more time before we call it a day. I hope she decides to sleep normally tonight. When Dawn is too nervous to sleep, I have trouble sleeping as well. I'm going to be optimistic though. Dawn has done pretty well today. She was eager to eat her dinner tonight which was a very good sign. The last time Janet was gone, it took several days to get Dawn to eat normally.

Rio is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4564

The time before 10 AM is very valuable in the summer. It's just about the only time you can get anything done outside. The best time of the day is our sunrise walk with Dawn, but there's usually enough time left for another walk or an outdoor chore before it gets too hot. Today I washed the car, cleaned spider webs and mud dauber nests off the front windows, and washed the sidewalks and front porch. I was going to clean up some of the wood siding, but the paint is so old that it was flaking off when I used the pressure hose. Never mind. I think I accomplished enough. Washing the car was really all I wanted to do anyway.

The house smelled good today. Janet was making me a slow cooker pot roast to eat while she was away. I did a load of laundry and did some bookkeeping on the computer once it became too hot to work outside. I definitely wasn't feeling very energetic today. I took a nap and was pleased that Dawn didn't immediately run away.

After lunch I went to the gym. It would have been insane to walk outside this afternoon. I think this was the hottest day of the year so far. The gym's air conditioning bill must be huge. They keep the place really cold. This is fine by me. I like to exercise without sweating. I'm still surprised that I burn more calories shooting baskets than I do using some of the machines. This is good news because I can count shooting hoops as exercise instead of just having fun. 

I've settled into a routine at the gym that probably won't change much. If the basketball court is empty, I'll use it first. I've learned that if I wait, I often miss my chance. I'll be doing something else and a bunch of kids will arrive and start a pickup game. After shooting free thows, I'll use the indoor track for a while. The number of miles I walk varies. I'll walk less if I already have quite a few steps when I arrive at the gym. I'll walk more if I still need to walk a few miles to get my self imposed minimum of 10,000 daily steps. I don't get 20,000 steps a day nearly as often as I used to. I'm getting older and it just doesn't seem worth the effort on many days. Depending on how much time I have left, I'll finish my workout by doing a few things that will improve my upper body strength. I need to do more of this because my upper body strength is abysmal. 

I really need to work on my balance. I read an article recently that said if you couldn't balance on one leg for at least ten seconds with both arms at your side, you were likely to die within ten years. That sounded pretty harsh, but it's very difficult for me to balance on one leg for ten seconds. I always thought it was just because I had weak ankles, but maybe there's a lot more going on. At any rate, I'm going to work on my balance. It couldn't hurt.

The little bird whistle for the Alessi tea kettle arrived in the mail today. It pleases me to be able to fix little things like this. A big project for me is putting a new hard drive in a computer or learning how to use the star tracker. Huge home improvement projects are out of my league. I don't even want to think about the big stuff. We still need a new roof, major sheet rock repairs, and some carpentry work on the exterior siding. A huge Oak tree needs to come down as well. Lord knows when this stuff will get done. I really hate dealing with the contractors and workmen you need for big projects. Fixing a tea kettle is more my style.

I'm really tired of turning on the television in the morning and hearing about politics. This is not what I'm worried about. Where are the stories about giant solar flares that could wipe out the entire power grid? These solar storms have happened before and will happen again. Where are the stories about global crop failures? What happens if the giant volcano under Yellowstone National Park explodes? I guess I like astronomy because it tries to deal with the big things. The little things are like mosquito bites. They are irritating, but we'll probably live. 

I'm going to try to get to bed earlier tonight. We have to get up really early tomorrow so we can walk Dawn before Janet leaves for the airport. I hope that Dawn decides to get along with me. It's going to be a long week otherwise.

Kirby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4563

Home Depot is still trying to deliver me a second dishwasher. This is getting ridiculous. I got another call this morning from someone asking when I'd be home to receive the delivery. It's hard to convince these guys that they've already been here. They delivered the dishwasher over a week ago. I made a few phone calls to get the additional deliveries to stop, but I did that yesterday as well. We'll see what happens tomorrow. At least they only charged me for one dishwasher. I checked my credit card bill.

The weather isn't getting any cooler. It was warm when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk, but I thought I could get away with taking my long walk in the park if I left right after breakfast. It sure warms up fast. The first mile was comfortable. I was starting to sweat a bit by the end of the second mile. I was able to complete my entire route, but by the time I got home I was miserable. Maybe I'll need to go back to the gym tomorrow. The gym is boring, but at least it's cool inside.

I paid a bunch of bills today which left me feeling too poor to go anywhere this summer. It's a shame that the two things I like to do are so far away. I don't think Florida or West Texas would provide any relief from the heat unfortunately. Both places are pretty hot right now. It's too bad I can't think of anything I'd like to do here in Dallas. Mostly I'd just like to leave for someplace a lot cooler this summer.

The refrigerator was making a funny noise while I was eating dinner this evening. The last thing I want to do right now is replace another appliance, so I started to investigate. My first thought was the ice maker which has always been problematic. When I tried to empty the ice bin, it was so full that it was jammed and wouldn't come out. I had to take some things out of the freezer and remove a couple of shelves before I could get the ice maker bin out. I threw all the ice out and replaced the bin. I guess I'm not using as much ice as I used to. I'm not hearing the noise now, so maybe I cured the problem. Hopefully the ice maker will still make ice. On a hot day, it's nice to have a very cold drink.

I kind of miss having writing assignments. Working on a writing job was a great way to kill time on a hot summer afternoon. Now I kill time by looking at camera equipment on the Internet. Sadly, without the writing jobs, it's harder to afford the camera equipment. Oddly, I have no interest in doing photography jobs. Someone wrote me just the other day asking if I'd like to do some product photography. I turned the job down and said I'd retired. From the way the job was described, it seemed like nothing but trouble. The budget was very small and I had a strong feeling that a lot of other photographers had already turned the job down. I'll stick to being a rocket photographer. As long as I'm making nothing, I might as well be having fun.

Dawn won another ribbon at her training class tonight. Janet is really doing well with her and Dawn seems to love the class. With only one dog to train, I don't go to these classes anymore. It's still nice to see Dawn come home with a ribbon though.

Boo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4562 - Summer Solstice

Today was another day when the temperature determined everything. I just don't handle the heat very well any more. The day started as usual with our sunrise walk with Dawn. The air felt warm and humid as soon as we left the house. These early walks are still the best part of the day though. The higher the sun climbs, the worse it gets.

Today wasn't very productive. After breakfast, I ordered a few odd things online. I'm always surprised that you can find just about anything on the Internet. I got a replacement whistling bird for our Alessi tea kettle. The bird goes in the spout and starts to whistle when the water comes to a boil. The old whistling bird melted for some reason. I also needed a Lightning to 30-pin adapter for my phone. I still have a lot of old stuff that needs to connect. My car happens to be one of those old things that thinks all Apple devices still connect with the 30-pin connection. Apple hasn't sold these things for quite a while. I still found some brand new ones in the box from China. Are the cables counterfeit? Who knows? If so, they sure went to a lot of trouble making the box look absolutely identical to the Apple box.

I didn't even consider walking in the park today. The only thing I did outside was try to kill the mud daubers that are building nests all over the outside of our house. The things are annoying because I can hear them buzzing right outside the window next to my computer. I may be wrong, but I don't think wasps deserve the same respect that bees get. They don't typically pollinate flowers or make honey. They will sting you though. We don't see many bees in our yard, but wasps seem to love the place.

I went to the gym today for obvious reasons. The place was more crowded than usual and the parking garage was full. I had to park the car outside which meant the interior felt like an oven when it was time to return home. My routine at the gym is pretty simple. I'm not even sure if I get any benefit from it. I shoot hoops on the basketball court until I make fifteen baskets. Sometimes I do this quickly and other times it takes forever. I usually walk two miles on the indoor track. I should be faster on the comfortable indoor track than I am walking outdoors, but surprisingly, I'm not. I'm almost always slower walking indoors. When I'm finished walking I'll use the abdominal crunch and rowing machines and usually spend a little time with free weights in the weight room. That's about it. I'll always spend at least an hour at the gym, but rarely if ever two hours. Some of the regulars seem to spend the day there. I'm usually pretty bored after the first hour.

Today is the first day of summer. It's also the longest day of the year. Sadly, it's not the hottest day of the year. The temperatures will continue getting hotter for at least another month. I'm not looking forward to July and August. If the forecasts are accurate, this is going to be a very hot summer. Lets just hope that there aren't any brownouts or power outages. I'm not going to last long without air conditioning. I don't even want to think about what the electric bill is going to look like this summer. It seems to get worse every year.

Maybe something interesting will happen tomorrow, but don't hold your breath. Summer is mostly about just making it through the day. I'm still hoping to get credentialed for the Artemis-1 launch. Who knows when that will be though. The launch hasn't even been scheduled yet. I'll probably do a lot more talking about traveling this summer than actual traveling. Traveling has just become too expensive.

Barley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4561

I had trouble getting up this morning. I guess I stayed up too late finishing my blog post after the birthday celebrations. When we took our sunrise walk with Dawn I could tell that this wasn't going to be a good day for walking in the park. The temperature was already in the high 80's and it was quite humid.

It looks like it's going to be a long, hot summer so it's time to get serious about keeping everything in the yard from dying. After breakfast I went and bought a new hose and several sprinklers so I could water the front and back yards. It seems like I have to do this every year. Sprinklers just don't last very long. I sprayed WD-40 on last year's sprinklers, but they still wouldn't turn. I wasn't very surprised.

I was surprised when there was a loud knock at my front door this morning. I usually ignore people at the front door, but these guys were persistent. When I went outside to investigate, I found two delivery guys with another dishwasher. WTF? The big box was exactly the same as the new dishwasher that was already installed over a week ago. "Dude," I told these guys. "You already delivered this dishwasher over a week ago.  It's already been installed and is working fine." "No problem," one of the delivery guys told me and they hauled the dishwasher box back to the truck while grumbling about the mixup. Later in the day I got a voice message on my phone. This is just a courtesy call the voice said, to inform you that your recent delivery was declined. I have no idea how the store got things so screwed up. I'll have to check my credit card bill and make sure that they didn't charge me for two dishwashers.

We visited the rescue Dalmatians right after lunch today. I heard that someone might be looking at one of the dogs, but the same five boys are still there. Charlie, Oliver, Willie, JoJo, and Rocket are all doing fine. Rocket is recovering well from his heartworm treatment and was in good spirits today. Rocket has come a long way from the day we first met him. His skin condition has cleared up and his coat looks great now. He's overcome his severe shyness as well. He is well on his way to becoming a very normal, friendly dog. Janet and I are still surprised that Oliver hasn't found his forever home yet. This goofy guy seems like he would be a perfect family dog. We couldn't believe that JoJo still wanted to play in the outdoor yard today. It was so hot. It didn't seem to bother JoJo though. This dog just doesn't like being indoors.

My plan today was to go to the gym when we returned from the kennel. I was just about to get in the car and leave when I remembered a small hand written sign on the gym's front door saying that they would be closed on Monday, June 20 in observance of Juneteenth. Since my memory isn't so great, I went back in the house to check the website. The website said everything was still open. I then called the gym and nobody answered. My call just got routed to voicemail. This was a pretty good sign that the place was closed. I don't know why nobody bothers to update their websites anymore. This has happened to me before at this gym. Once burned, twice shy I guess. I used to manage dozens of websites and made daily changes to many of them. It's not that hard to keep things up to date. Hey, why bother though when a hand written sign on the front door will do.

It was kind of an odd day. Especially the part about the dishwasher delivery. It was nice to see the Dalmatians again. It would be even nicer if they would all find their forever homes soon.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4560 - My Birthday

Another trip around the sun. I'm 74 now. I'm definitely feeling a little worse for wear.  I'm still hanging in there though. I walked my full six mile route this morning. We'll see if I can keep this going for another year. I'm already doing better than my parents were. My Mom was dead before she turned 74 and my Dad had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

We went out for dinner at my favorite restaurant this evening. We hadn't been since before Covid and things had changed a bit. The place was seriously understaffed and everyone seemed a bit stressed. The food was still good though. My favorite dish wasn't even on menu anymore. That was a little disappointing. I was surprised because it was still on the online menu, it just wasn't on the actual menu that the waiter brought us. Oh, well. I found something else I liked and we had a very nice dinner. 

I wouldn't want to be in the restaurant business right now. Everyone is still trying to recover from the Covid shutdowns, the cost of ingredients has gone up, and fewer people are dining out because of out of control inflation. We arrived a little early tonight, but they wouldn't seat us until our scheduled time even though the restaurant seemed half empty. I'm sure it was company policy. I bet they thought if they could shuttle everyone to the bar for a while before they were seated, they would sell a little more. I can't really blame them. It was clear that this place was just trying to keep their doors open.

We always have Sprinkles cupcakes and a little champagne to celebrate birthdays. Dawn gets a pupcake as well. I forget how long we've been doing this, but it's been quite a while. I enjoy the celebration, but I don't look forward to birthdays anymore. I'm clearly on a downhill glide path. I'm doing the best I can to stay healthy, but you never know. People my age are dropping like flies. I know a few people who are still active in their 90's though, so maybe I'll get lucky.

I get fewer Facebook birthday greetings every year. The difference isn't dramatic, but it is consistent. I think the smaller numbers correspond pretty well to the number of friends who have died during the year. I should do a better job of keeping up with my remaining friends, but I probably won't. I'm a solitary person and if I could just get my dog to like me I'd be a happy camper.

I was a little surprised that I got 20,000 steps today. I guess I was busier than I thought. Dawn still got her Sunday outing, even though she only took a very short walk because of the heat. She did get a nice sunrise walk earlier in the day though. These early morning walks are the only times when it's still pleasant to be outside. We didn't spend a lot of time outside on Dawn's outing, but we did still go and get ice cream. Dawn even got an extra treat today when they gave her a free doggie cone.

All in all it was a good day. I tire easily and my feet hurt, but I'm still in pretty good shape. I think I've still got a few good years left. I hope I've managed to see a few more rocket launches and made at least one more trip to the observatory before I turn 75. There are no big plans anymore. Little day to day plans are all I need. I think we'll go visit the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow. I'm a year older now but it's time to get back to our regular schedule.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4559

Dawn and I have some work to do. Our trial run at being alone together left a lot to be desired. Dawn was mad when Janet left early this morning and didn't want to get out of bed. When I tried to tempt her with some treats, she spit them out. I gave up on making the bed for a while and went about my business. Usually the first thing she does every morning with Janet is go outside to poop and pee. She didn't want to do that with me. It took four tries throughout the day before I could get her down to the park to do her business. She did eat her dinner though. That was a good sign. Eventually she finally went outside and pooped around 6 PM. It was about twelve hours late, but who's counting. I've been through this before with Dawn. Eventually, she'll get back on a schedule, but she really doesn't like it when Janet is gone.

Dawn definitely doesn't mind it when I'm gone. I think she prefers it. I went out and did my grocery shopping and filled my car with gas right after breakfast. Nothing seemed more expensive this week, but that's not saying much. The prices are high enough already. Gas actually seemed a little cheaper, but maybe I didn't need as much this time. I'm still glad that I don't need to drive much. Prices at the pump are ridiculous.

When I came home I tried to get Dawn to eat lunch with me but she wasn't interested. She loves having lunch with Janet. I did get her to go outside for a while though. She likes to lay out in the sun, but it's too hot these days to stay very long. Dogs can get sunburned too. I definitely wasn't going to do any yard work today, so Dawn went back to sleeping on the bed and I went to the gym.

I wish my gym was a little closer, but the trip still preferable to walking outside in the park on a day like this. The place is surprisingly empty on a Saturday. I would have thought this would be a busy day, but apparently not. I guess people have lots of errands to run on the weekends. I walked a couple of miles on the indoor track to get my Fitbit steps and shot some hoops on the basketball court. I should have done more, but I wasn't really in the mood. When I came home I took a quick nap on the couch. Dawn was still in the bedroom and sometimes it's best to just let sleeping dogs lie.

Things are really busy down at Kennedy Space Center this summer. It seems like there is a launch just about every week these days. I wish it were easier and a lot less expensive for me to get down there. I enjoy the whole experience of covering launches. Some of the locals I know go to every single launch. I'm lucky if I can get to one or two a year. I could imagine living in Florida. It wouldn't be better than living in Texas, but it wouldn't be worse either. The two states are similar in many ways. I'm still hoping to get down for the Artemis-1 launch this Fall, but that's assuming that I get credentials. I wish that process was easier too.

Dawn was really happy when Janet returned this evening. Everything is back to normal again. I wish I knew the secret to keeping Dawn happy, but she's had a very troubled past and will probably never completely trust men. We'll do fine when Janet is on vacation, but it might take a few days to get used to a new schedule. One day at a time. You've got to take everything one day at a time.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4558

On days like this I kind of wish that I wrote one post a week instead of one a day. On a hot summer day like today it's hard to even pretend that anything happened. I was still asleep when Janet gave me the ten minute warning that it was time to walk Dawn. I don't have to decide what coat to wear anymore. Even when we walk before sunrise, it's still pretty warm. 

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone works on Friday anymore. The park was filled with cyclists and joggers this morning. The sun rose while we were climbing a small hill on the way home and you could almost instantly feel the temperature rise. They say it's going to be a hot summer this year. I believe it.

I didn't even think about walking in the park today. Why punish myself. As soon as I finished breakfast and checked my e-mail, I headed for the gym. One of the machines at the gym has a metal bar that you pull down while you are sitting on a low bench. I thought I'd use this today to stretch my shoulder muscles. I guess I haven't used this station in a while. My knees are so shaky that when I was holding the bar in both hands, I found that I couldn't lower myself to the bench. Weird. I used to be able to do this easily. I moved on to the rowing machine which somehow is much easier on my aching joints. I still feel like I'm in pretty good shape when I watch what the other people are doing. This is an illusion though. Most of the others are in physical therapy. I probably should be in physical therapy myself.

I shot some hoops on the basketball court for a while, walked two miles on the indoor track, and used the rowing and abdominal crunch machines. That was it for today. I don't think I even raised my heart rate very much, but it was enough for me. Hey, I got my Fitbit steps without having to brave the heat on an outdoor walk. I have a feeling that I'll be doing this a lot this summer.

The rest of the day was uneventful. I did a load of wash and took a couple of short naps. I still can't get Dawn to stay in the room with me while Janet is away. If I come in the bedroom, she leaves. When Janet comes home, everything is fine again. It's definitely going to be an interesting week when Janet is on vacation. We've done this once before and Dawn eventually started to relax about two days before Janet returned. It took a long time though and there were a couple of days when I was afraid she would stop eating. Hopefully we'll do a little better this time.

Tomorrow will be a good practice day. Janet will be at a rescue event for the entire day, so it's just Dawn and me. I need to perfect the morning routine, because I'm usually still asleep when Dawn has her breakfast and goes outside to poop and pee. She follows Janet around like glue, but this isn't the case with me. I have trouble even getting her off the bed in the morning so I can make it. Dogs do get hungry though. When Dawn gets hungry enough, she'll come eat. I don't even think I'll attempt a walk with Dawn while Janet is gone. If Dawn decided to freeze in place in the park while I was alone with her, I would have real trouble getting her home again. She will walk down to the meadow right behind our house with me, but as soon as she's done her business she heads straight for the back door again.

It's time to make a grocery list again. These weeks go by so quickly now. If the weather is like it was today I'll probably go back to the gym after I get my shopping done. Dawn doesn't mind when I'm gone. I think she prefers it. She's a lazy dog and is pretty content just sleeping on our king sized bed. 

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4557

The dog days of summer are definitely here. It's hot. I feel lethargic. And there is a dearth of good news. When I turn on the TV during breakfast looking for something encouraging it's slim pickings these days. I lost interest in cable news quite a while ago. It doesn't matter which side of the political fence you're on, everyone is just pushing a narritive. I used to like watching the business channels, but that's turned very dismal lately. We're headed toward another recession. I can remember quite a few recessions in my past, but I'd been hoping to avoid another one at my age. It just takes too long to recover from these things. I don't have a long time to recover from another recession. Today I tried the weather channel. How can you go wrong with the weather channel? Never mind. This mornings coverage was all about the flooding in Yellowstone. One of my favorite areas is under water. Somehow it seems like everything in the world is under water these days.

I didn't feel like going to the gym today, so I tried another long walk right after breakfast. There was a nice breeze for a while, but it didn't last long enough. I can tell things are starting to dry out in the park. The meadows don't look as green and lush as they did a month ago. A lot of the wildflowers are starting to disappear as well.  It's a shame that we get all our rain at once in Texas. If the weather would spread things out and give us a little rain every month everything would look a lot greener in July and August. Our yard looks great now, but I'm going to have to start watering the lawn soon. That's a quick way to double the water bill. We don't have a sprinkler system, so even when I water I only use a small fraction of the water the sprinkler systems in the neighborhood use. When I see all the wet streets on our early walks with Dawn I quickly realize what an enormous amount of water these systems waste.

I managed to complete my six mile route today, but I was hot and tired by the time I returned home. I took a shower and then wanted to take a nap for a while. Dawn quickly left the room and sat outside the bedroom door, watching me and occasionally whining. I hate to see this, so I got up and took my nap on the couch in the living room. I keep telling Dawn that she's running out of time to be buddies with me. Janet will be going on vacation soon. Things will go a lot smoother if Dawn would realize that I mean no harm and would really like to be friends with her. The two guys that ran the puppy mill must have been terrible. A lot of the dogs that came from that place are suspicious of men.

Our air conditioner is having trouble keeping up with this heat. My HVAC guy told me once that air conditioning systems are basically designed to keep the air in your home up to twenty degrees colder than the outside air. This works pretty well when the temperatures are in the 80's and low 90's. Not so much when the temperature is over a 100 degrees every day. The best we are able to do on days like these is about 78 degrees. Coincidentally, this is the temperature the power company wants you to use to save energy. I don't know how much energy we're saving though, since the AC seems to be running all the time.

There are still a lot of things on my to-do list, but I'm not really in the mood to do any of them. Sometimes I fantasize about living in a nice new house in a safe little town. I'm sure there are people who thought the same thing when they moved to those little towns north of Yellowstone that are getting flooded now. There's really no escape anymore. Life is a roll of the dice these days, but I still think it helps to avoid all the drama. On that note, I've taken this weeks trash to the curb and am ready to start another uneventful week.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4556

Today was busier than usual for me. I actually got a few things done. After our sunrise walk with Dawn and my usual bowl of shredded wheat for breakfast, I decided to mow the grass instead of taking a long walk. I still need to replace the batteries in the electric mower because a charge only lasts long enough to mow half the yard. No problem though. I find that I need to recharge myself as well these days. I mowed the back yard and then checked my e-mail while the mower was charging before I went back outside and mowed the front. I don't know why I keep doing this. I've found someone who will do the mowing for me, but old habits die hard.

The new dishwasher is a success. Janet likes it anyway. I didn't have much faith in the unusual drying system when I started an overnight cycle before I went to bed last night, but all the dishes were clean and dry when we woke up this morning. The tub was dry as well. I think this machine takes longer to dry things than our old dishwasher, but it isn't a problem since I only run the machine once a day before I go to bed. This thing sure is quiet. I can't even tell it is on when it is running. 

Since I used up the cooler part of the day mowing the grass, I went to the gym this afternoon to get my steps. I stopped at the pharmacy on the way to pick up a prescription and discovered once again that GoodRx had a much better price than my Part-D prescription drug plan. The pharmacist said my Part-D rates would get better once I met my yearly deductible, but why bother. The GoodRx price is so much better.

I'm glad they opened up the basketball court again at my gym. Shooting baskets is one of the few things I actually enjoy while I'm there. They closed the court for a long time because I guess they thought people might catch Covid by touching basketballs. Sadly, now that things are finally returning to normal at the gym, they are crazier than ever everywhere else. Gas is expensive, food is expensive, the stock market is tanking, and everyone seems angry.

It was still pretty early when I finished my workout and returned home, so I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the star tracker again. I wish they'd decide that this thing was ready for production and stop the almost weekly upgrades. Some of the upgrades make things better and others make things worse. Every time I do an upgrade, I'm afraid my Polaris will stop working again. Actually I'm surprised that the Benro folks have done as well as they have. They're attempting to create a product that can be controlled by hundreds of different cameras that all work a little bit differently. Luckily, this upgrade went smoothly. Everything still works. I took a few test shots and put the contraption back in its box. I"m sure there will be at least ten more firmware upgrades before I get a chance to take this thing back to the observatory again.

It was one of those rare days when everything went right. I didn't kill myself mowing the grass. The new dishwasher works like a charm. And the star tracker still provides me with an odd amount of pleasure every time I can get it to work. Dawn was even a bit friendlier with me today. All in all, I'd call today a win.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4555

It was a very slow day. I mostly thought about things I needed to do, but didn't get around to doing many of them. The daily routine is pretty familiar by now. We get up and take Dawn on her sunrise walk. I make the bed while Janet and Dawn are eating breakfast and then I go eat my own breakfast. Out of habit I turn on the computer after breakfast and check my e-mail. I only get one or two important messages a month these days. Since the temperature is getting hotter, I'm making a real effort to start my long walk before 9 AM. The weather is still nice this early, but by the time I return at 11 AM it is already oppressively hot. 

There are still a lot of wildflowers in the park, but most of the animals are in hiding. It's just too hot. I haven't even seen many ducks lately. What I do see is a lot of construction activity. The new concrete trail that they are building is almost completed. The construction company must have a penalty clause in their contract because activity has increased a lot lately. I think the whole project is supposed to be completed by the end of June.

I still haven't run the new dishwasher yet, but I did read the instruction manual today. This thing is way too complicated. If you hold certain buttons for three seconds a sub-menu appears with even further choices. I think I liked the simple round dial on the old dishwasher better. There were just three settings: heavy wash, normal wash, and light wash. You turned the dial to the setting you wanted and that was it. I'll try this thing tonight and we'll see how it goes. It will be interesting to see if the dishes actually get dry. I wish they'd used an electric heating coil to dry the dishes instead of using this "dynamic drying" feature which is just marketing hype for no drying at all. It's easy to accidentally turn the dishwasher on by leaning against it as well. I guess I shouldn't complain. This was the only model that would fit under our kitchen counter.

I found a small hole in the screen wire side of the atrium and sealed it today. Hopefully I sealed the rat out instead of sealing it in. I think it is gone because I haven't seen it in over a week. When I removed the Havahart trap from the atrium I noticed that some of the cheese had been eaten. The clever rat had figured out how to eat the cheese without setting off the trap.

I installed the latest star tracker app on my phone, but didn't have the nerve to upgrade the firmware on the device and test it again. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Just like with my phone, watch, and computers, you eventually have to install the upgrades. It's frustrating how often upgrades actually make things worse though. If you ignore the upgrades, your machine basically isn't supported anymore. Since I run an older operating system on my main computer, my browser crashes a lot more than it should. I can't run the latest browsers though because they are linked to the latest operating systems.

Dawn is still leaving the room whenever I try to take a nap with her during the day. She just seems nervous whenever Janet isn't in the house. This is discouraging, but I don't think this behavior is going to change. I don't think she's going to be happy when Janet goes on vacation, but as long as I can keep her eating and taking her meds, we'll be OK. 

I'm already tired of summer and it's just getting started. We've got a long way to go. It's already too hot to mow the grass or do yard work. The air conditioner is struggling to keep the house as cold as we like. Unfortunately I've already used up my travel budget for the year, so I'm stuck here until things start to cool down again. Hopefully nothing else breaks this summer. I'd much rather buy a new camera than another major appliance.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day