Friday, September 2, 2022

Day 4635

Another rainy day. We were able to walk Dawn this morning before the rain started, but we returned home just in time. If we'd started our walk five minutes later we would have gotten soaked. This is typical Texas weather. It was bone dry all summer and then we get a year's worth of rain all at once. At least it's much cooler now. If it wasn't so wet, this would have been a perfect day.

I did some grocery shopping after breakfast and continued to be amazed at how much prices have gone up.  Many things I regularly get have literally doubled in price in just a few years. These price increases are much more apparent when you are living on a fixed income.  A lot more money is going out the door, but no more money is coming in.

The troublesome "service required" light has come on in my car again. It does this every September. I called the folks who replaced my catalytic converter recently and asked if they could just turn the light off for me  since the car didn't appear to have any other problems when they ran their diagnostic check. Nope. They said I still need the annual service. I thought I'd have a lot fewer problems when I stopped going to the dealership. Nope again. It's the car that's the problem, not where I take it to be serviced.

It would have been a good day for a walk in the park if it wasn't raining. It was nice and cool outside, but unfortunately it was very wet. I went back to the gym instead. I'm not wild about driving in the rain, but it sure beats getting wet myself on a poorly planned walk in the park. I didn't do all that well today. It took a lot longer than usual to shoot twenty-five baskets and I was definitely slower on the indoor track. I got everything done though and drove home in the rain again.

There was a break in the rain around 3 PM so Janet and I took Dawn on another short walk. She didn't poop on her sunrise walk because she doesn't like walking on wet ground. Dawn enjoyed getting a second walk, but she still didn't do her business. The ground was still just as wet as it was this morning. I guess she'll go when she needs to go.

I'm trying to stay current with developments down at the space center. So far, everyone seems very confident. The weather seems to be improving and most of the problems that occurred on Monday have been fixed. The launch is still scheduled to take place at 2:17 PM tomorrow afternoon. Although I'm glad to be home, I'm still second guessing my decision to return. I really did want to see this, but the rational side of my brain keeps telling me that I didn't have much of a choice. Since the launch now is going to take place on a big holiday weekend, they expect twice as many people to converge on Titusville this time. Up to 400,000 visitors are predicted now. I did make an effort to find a hotel when I lost my Airbnb. It wasn't meant to be. I think all the hotels between Orlando and the coast are completely booked.

I forgot to get berries and beer when I was out this morning, so I'll make another grocery store run in the morning and then come home and watch the launch on NASA TV. I hope the launch is a success and that the launch photographers who stuck it out get some good pictures. I got a notice today that it's time to apply for credentials for the Crew-5 launch to the International Space Station in October. Too soon for me. I'm not going anywhere for a while.