Day 4502

Another very windy, unseasonably warm, and largely uneventful day. After our early walk with Dawn and my ritual breakfast of shredded wheat and berries, I puttered around the house, doing a bunch of unessential chores. I tried again to fix the perpetually running toilet. Usually cleaning all the small parts with a Q-tip gets things working again for a while. My efforts never last long though. After finishing this hopeless task, I pried open the broken sliding glass door to the atrium and swept the patio and cleaned the outside of the large glass doors. I don't know how this enclosed area gets so dirty, but dust is everywhere in this neighborhood. I swept away the avalanche of catkins that keep falling from our Oak trees on the front and back porch. Usually more catkins have fallen before I even finish sweeping. You'd think I'd learn to do something that was actually useful, but these are the things that bother me most.

I did get one pleasant surprise this morning. I found my lost sock. It was inside the arm of a light jacket I had washed with the other laundry. I discovered the sock when I was putting on the jacket for our early walk with Dawn. If it hadn't been a little chilly early this morning, the sock might have gone unnoticed for months. Jacket weather is almost over for the year.

I got a message to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. I'm not low on anything, so once again the automated systems have run amok. I have tried to change the timing of these renewals in the past, but it's hard to argue with a computer. Once the information is entered in the system it seems to stay there forever.  Now I just pick up the pills and put them somewhere until I need them. I'm not sure what I'm picking up yet, but whatever it is, I doubt that I'll need it for months.

I put a picture I took of the Milky Way on my Facebook page recently, mostly to remind myself why I continue to travel to McDonald Observatory. I was genuinely surprised at how much attention the picture got. Maybe I ought to post more pictures. I probably won't though. Way back when Google+ was a going concern I used to post pictures every day. One day a well known national photographer suggested to his followers that that they follow me as well. All of the sudden I had a ton of Google+ followers. Over 50,000 if I remember correctly. These people always wanted new content. The attention was fun for a little while and then it became a burden. I got tired of being a prolific photographer. I wasn't sad at all when Google pulled the plug on Google+. I didn't have to keep proving my worth anymore. It's much easier to write a little blog that nobody reads.

I have no idea what to take to the observatory with me. Usually I take several Winter coats because it can get very cold at night. I hear it's a lot warmer now though. Do I really need a down jacket in May? Should I take several pairs of Hoka shoes or just the new boots? I can't even decide which camera to take. The camera that works with the star track is not the camera I usually use and am more comfortable with. I guess I could take both, but I hate to travel with a bunch of unnecessary stuff. Do I tend to overthink things. Absolutely.

My grocery list for tomorrow is already longer than usual. How did we run out of so many things at the same time? I wonder if prices are continuing to rise? That's a stupid question. Of course they are. Unfortunately the stock market is headed in the opposite direction. We had the biggest drop since 2020 today.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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