Sunday, July 31, 2022

Day 4602

We got all the dogs moved to the new kennel this morning. The move went smoothly and everyone seems happy in their new home. All of us thought that Charlie would probably be the hardest to move but he turned out to be the easiest. JoJo, who is usually laid back and calm, was the one who hated to get in the car. The new kennel runs are smaller than what the dogs were used to previously, but they are clean and I think the dogs will be OK. 

There is a nice outdoor yard at the kennel that will be even nicer when the weather cools down. The staff takes each dog out to pee every few hours so they aren't stuck in their kennel runs all day. It took four of us to move the dogs this morning and the staff at the new kennel was very helpful. I thought this move would be a huge ordeal, but it turned out to be fairly easy. I suffered the only mishap when one of the dogs scratched my arm and it started to bleed. I've got to stop taking baby asprin. My skin is thinner now and I bleed easily. I didn't even notice the cut until I looked down at some point and saw dried blood all over my arm. I still don't know which dog scratched me. I didn't feel a thing.

On the way home from the kennel I stopped at Northpark Mall to give mall walking a try. I wish I'd thought of this earlier. It's an enjoyable place to walk a few miles. The stores open at noon on Sunday, but the mall itself opens an hour earlier. If you come at 11 AM there is plenty of parking and no big crowds inside. There were plenty of mall walkers, but the place wasn't as crowded as the park on a typical Sunday. I hadn't been to Northpark in over a year and was surprised at how much the place had changed. There were a ton of new stores and many of the existing stores had moved to new locations. Somebody must still have money in Dallas. There were no low end stores left. The place seems like a climate controlled Rodeo Drive now. As it got closer to noon I began to see lines form in front of some stores. The largest line was at the Apple Store. Some if the restaurants had big crowds as well. When I returned to my car after walking several miles, the parking lots were completely full. I'd have to conclude that shopping is still much more popular than mall walking in Dallas.

Dawn still got her Sunday outing. When we stopped at the Sunday park to let Dawn smell things, she immediately peed next to the car and then wanted to hop back in. She had no interest in being out in the hot sun. She was interested in an ice cream cone though. Dawn is always calmer on the ride home after she's had her ice cream. All the rescue dogs were much better in the car than Dawn is. Dawn wins the prize for worst dog to take on a road trip. All the kennel dogs rode calmly to their new home with no issues at all this morning. Even JoJo rode well after we finally managed to get him in the back seat. He just didn't want to get in the car. This is probably where I got scratched. JoJo is a strong dog.

The rest of the day was uneventful. I thought about upgrading the star tracker, since the new firmware is available now. A nap sounded better though. I'll wait until I'm really bored to mess with the star tracker again. It's hard to believe that it's going to be August tomorrow. Where has this year gone? It looks like August is going to be a busy month for me. I have a dental appointment on Tuesday and several doctors appointments later in the month. I need to get my car safety inspected and I think it's time for an annual maintenance visit as well. The Artemis-1 launch is getting closer too. Honestly, I'd rather take a long nap and have someone wake me up in September. Our extreme weather is really getting old.