Sunday, April 10, 2022

Day 4490

It was hard to get up this morning. I'm still feeling tired from my trip. You can't keep a dog waiting though. I dragged myself out of bed and off we went on our morning walk. It was a nice morning, but really windy. I think the wind blew in more pollen because both Janet and I had allergy problems this morning.

We always have a big breakfast on Sunday morning and then after doing a few chores around the house, we left again for Dawn's Sunday outing. We took my car this time because Janet's car was in the shop for a recall repair. She had a loaner car, but they don't allow pets in rentals and loaners anymore. The way Dalmatians shed you could never convince anyone that a dog had not been in the car. Dawn is always nervous about new things, but she did pretty well in a different car. It probably helped that Janet sat in the back with her. There was plenty of room. The seats were down and Dawn had her favorite blanket. I'm glad this worked because I may need to take Dawn and Janet to training class this week. The Audi dealer is way behind schedule and who knows when the recall repairs will be completed.

The wind was blowing harder when we started our walk but it kept things cooler. Dawn enjoyed her second walk, but we got a big surprise when we went for ice cream afterwards. The place should have been open for several hours, but evidently employees arrived late and they weren't ready to serve yet. We were told to come back in an hour. So much for ice cream this week. We definitely weren't messing with getting Dawn back in a car again today.

I worked on my article for SpaceFlight Magazine for a bit and then I took my afternoon walk. I don't even call it a long walk anymore, because I haven't been going that far lately. I'm trying to give my foot some time to recover and it seems to be helping. For the past several days I've only been walking two miles. I still had a respectable total though because of the two short one mile walks with Dawn.

The catkins are falling from our Oak trees again. These small cylindrical flower clusters form every spring just as the tree's leaves start to turn green. They make a huge mess. I have to sweep the porch every day because it is completely covered with catkins. If it's a windy day they blow inside when you open the front door. The catkins can completely clog the pumps on the roof as well, so I'm hoping that all the wind we've been having lately is blowing the mess off the roof. I'd much rather have this stuff on the front porch than the roof. I really don't want to climb up there again to unclog the pumps. It's just getting too hard.

With all my aches and pains I'm really having second thoughts about taking a long road trip again. I don't know if I have another road trip in me. Especially all the way out to West Texas. Maybe a few trips to Kennedy Space Center each year is all the traveling I need. The way prices have gone up, I don't know if I could afford much more anyway. At any rate, I'll need to decide soon because the Dark Sky Festival is at the end of the month. This might not even be an issue because I don't even have a place to stay yet. Nobody has bothered to reply to my enquiry about reservations at the Astronomer's Lodge.

It's weird how much can change in a year. Janet sees an apocalyptic future. I won't go quite that far, but things do look pretty dismal. Workers aren't showing up to make ice cream. Restaurants don't have bread to make french toast. Prices for absolutely everything have gone through the roof. I'm glad I grew up and spent most of my working years in much better times.

Apollo is today's Dalmatian of the Day


Watch of the Day