Monday, August 15, 2022

Day 4617

I finally got the information I've been waiting for from NASA. It doesn't look like I'll have to change any of my travel plans, so all is good. The only thing I didn't like was that they have turned this launch into a two week long media extravaganza. I can't afford to stay that long, so I will miss some of the pre-launch events. Hopefully the Artemis rocket will launch on the first attempt or I will miss the launch as well. I guess the trip is still worthwhile though. I'm sure I'll see something interesting. This is a historic event.

Our Monday morning walks with Dawn are always very quiet. It's a real contrast to all the activity we typically see on the weekend. I don't know if people are busy getting ready for work or sleeping in and trying to avoid the start of another week. I appreciate the solitude though. I wish the park was like this everyday. 

By the time the sun came up I could tell that it was going to be another hot day. It didn't matter though. I was planning to go to the gym anyway. When we started out this morning we caught a glimpse of the conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter before the sky got too bright. It might have been more dramatic if I had stayed up for a look late last night when the Moon was rising, but this was fine.

I went to the post office on my way to the gym this morning. Since I started paying bills online I don't have many reasons to go to the post office anymore. Stamps and envelopes seem to last a lot longer too. I still send a monthly letter to my sister even though we could easily talk on the phone. Letter writing is becoming a lost art. Actually most things I do are becoming a lost art, but I have no desire to change at this point.

The gym is pretty empty on Monday as well. Even the roads seem less crowded. Some of the personal trainers I used to see have disappeared. Maybe they were students who have returned to school. The same people seem to be working out whenever I arrive. Most of them are much more interested in body building than I am. I just want to get my steps and go home.

I did some routine bookkeeping this afternoon and then cleared some brush in the back yard so I could take it out to the curb for bulky trash day. There is more yard work to do, but it was too hot to stay outside for very long. I didn't bother to upgrade the star tracker today either. I'm actually getting tired of messing with this thing. I've lost track of how many upgrades I've installed already. I think the little tracker works pretty well, but I doubt that I'll use it until I get a chance to return to the observatory again. You can't see much of the night sky from our back yard and I don't feel safe going anywhere else at night.

I miss visiting the rescue Dalmatians on Mondays. Maybe we'll be able to work out something with the new kennel in the future, but who knows. At least the dogs have a nice clean place to stay. The old kennel was always where we did our Santa Paws Christmas photos as well. We'll need a new venue for that event.  I should be used to change by now, but I'm not. Change has never been exciting to me. I wish that everything would stay the same.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day


Watch of the Day