Day 4604

Everything went well at the dentist this morning. No new cavities or root canals. There was a new dental hygienist today. I don't like anything new at the dentist office, but she did a good job. My teeth are clean now and I'm good for another six months. Like everything else in life, the price for the exam, x-rays, and cleaning went up. I wasn't surprised though. I'm getting used to the price for everything going up.

The day started normally enough. We took a sunrise walk through a parched and very dry park. The city has mowed the native prairie grass to reduce the risk of fire. The water level of the lake is noticeably lower. We don't see many ducks or animals now. I wonder how they are managing in this drought?

I had to get gas today. There are no lines at the pump when prices are coming down, but long lines when prices are doing up. Go figure. Human behavior is weird. You'd think that people would want to take advantage of lower prices, but usually fear kicks in when prices start rising. Somehow my car seems to get even worse gas mileage since I took it in for the recall repair. This doesn't make sense though. I'm probably just imagining things.

I went back to the gym this afternoon. I don't think mall walking will work during the week. I drove by Northpark on the way to the gym and the place looked packed. I guess I'll just do this on Sunday before the stores open. The gym was crowded too, but I did manage to find a parking place. At least half the people who come to my gym seems to be having physical therapy. It's an eye opener watching what they have to go through. Yikes. I need to be careful not to fall or injure myself. This is going to be harder than it seems. My balance isn't as good as it used to be and life is full of hazards. Even today, I noticed that my shoulder hurt after I got home. I have no idea what I did.

I got a bill from my HVAC supplier today for work done back in May. This was a surprise. I was sure that I'd already paid this bill because the technician told me that both service calls would be rolled into the final bill. Evidently he was wrong and my AC repair was even more expensive that I thought it was. The first call to diagnose the problem was never added to the final bill. I paid this bill over the phone and then noticed later in the fine print on my invoice that there was a 3% convenience fee for paying bills over the phone. You really can't win these days.

I'm apparently not the only one nervous about travel arrangements for the Artemis-1 launch. Hotel rooms are already drying up in Titusville and the launch is still a month away. I'm glad I already made my reservations because other people are already having problems. This is not normal. I've made last minute decisions to travel to Titusville before and never had any problems finding a room. There are three launch opportunities in late August and early September that are spaced four or five days apart. I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly on the first attempt. I can't afford to stay in Florida for two weeks and I probably couldn't extend my stay anyway with hotels rooms in such short supply. My editor at SpaceFlight is really happy that I will be attending the launch. I see no reason to burden him with all the problems that might occur.

I'm hearing that we should expect our hot weather to continue all the way through the end of August. That sucks. They say that the summer of 2011 was even worse, but you couldn't prove it by me. This seems like the worst summer ever. I shouldn't complain though. Our air conditioner is still working and I certainly don't have to worry about roof leaks for a while.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day