Day 4573

When I went out to water the lawn early this morning I could already tell that it was going to be too hot for a walk in the park. Dawn and I have our morning routine down pretty well now. When I get up, I make the bed while she is still sitting on it. It's not that hard because I only use a small corner of the bed. I fill her water bowls with fresh water and fix her breakfast. When I return to the kitchen to fix my own breakfast, I can hear her eating in the bedroom. After I finish eating, I take Dawn down to the meadow behind our house so she can poop and pee. It would be nice if she felt like walking further, but so far she wants to go straight back to the house. I give her morning meds with a little cream cheese and then I do the breakfast dishes. I still haven't used the dishwasher. Why bother for one or two plates.

I thought I'd combine grocery shopping with a trip to the gym this morning. I went to the gym first so the groceries wouldn't spoil in the hot car. The gym is pretty empty on a Saturday morning. The roads were pretty empty too. Maybe everyone is traveling during this holiday long weekend. I shot some baskets on the basketball court and walked three miles on the indoor track. That was enough for me.

The grocery store was out of shredded wheat. How can you be out of something so basic? My list was very small today. I needed milk, orange juice, and strawberries. The fresh squeezed orange juice I get was a dollar more than the same bottle was last week. I wasn't really surprised. Everything seems to get more expensive on a weekly basis.

Dawn typically likes to lie out in the sun for a while in the afternoon. Not these days. It's just too hot. When I took her out to pee after I returned home, she did her business quickly and then ran straight to the back door. She's a smart dog. Nobody needs to be outside in this type of weather.

Maybe Dawn likes Janet better because she finds me boring. I certainly haven't found much to get her excited this week. She's fine with me napping on the bed now though. She seems relaxed and mostly just ignores me. We both seem to have the ability to nap for a long time.

I watched the Artemis-1 rollback to the VAB on a NASA livestream for a while this afternoon. This was kind of like watching paint dry because the huge mobile launcher moves at a maximum speed of one mile per hour. I saw a few of my photographer friends on the video feed taking pictures of the rollback. These guys seem to never tire of photographing rockets. It is an interesting little community. I wouldn't mind being a part of it. Unfortunately Florida is just as hot and humid as Texas right now. Winter launches are much more pleasant.

Hopefully Janet won't have any problems with her flight home tomorrow. Every time I turn on the news there's another story about flight delays and cancelations. I don't think it's been this bad for quite a while. Planes are full. Pilots are unhappy and are picketing in front of airports. TSA lines are ridiculous. On top of all this, airfares are more expensive than ever. I'm glad we did a lot of traveling back when flying was easy and cheap.

It looks like I'll have to walk outdoors tomorrow because my gym isn't open on Sunday. I'd better get an early start. I asked the receptionist if they were ever going to open on Sundays again and she said they were having trouble hiring people. Nobody wants to work anymore. I have mixed feelings about working. I always enjoyed writing for a living, but hated having people tell me what to do. I've had a lot of dumb assignments in my time.

Bud is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day