Day 4649

Today was frustrating. I decided it was time to make reservations for the Artemis launch attempt on September 27th and almost immediately ran into problems. The Airbnb I liked was already booked. So was the Holiday Inn where I've stayed frequently. I looked for other Airbnb rentals in Titusville and many were already booked as well. The available places I found either had a four day minimum stay, were ridiculously expensive, or looked pretty shady. I eventually found a decent hotel and made a reservation. I wondered why this hotel wasn't sold out like the others and later discovered that it was undergoing renovations and many guests thought the construction noise was irritating. Oh, well. When I was making airline reservations my computer crashed right while my transaction was being processed. That took a while to get sorted out.

The sad thing is that all the effort I put in today is probably for nothing. There's a very good chance that the launch will get postponed again and I'll have to change or even cancel these reservations. The launch attempt on the 27th is really just tentative at this point. The Artemis team won't know whether the repairs they made recently to the hydrogen fill line are effective until they try to fill the rocket with fuel on September 21st. I had to abandon several promising Airbnb's because the 20th was the last day you could cancel your reservation without a penalty. I have a gut feeling that this rocket isn't going to launch until Halloween, but what do I know. If I want to see this launch I have to play along at this point. NASA doesn't care how often you have to change your travel plans.

The park department finally mowed the meadow behind our house. It's much easier to get down to the lake now on our sunrise walks with Dawn. This morning's walk was very pleasant. The weather was crisp and cool and the park was fairly empty. Although my feet are starting to hurt again, I decided to take another long walk in the park after breakfast. Actually it was quite a while after breakfast because I had to make all my travel arrangement first. It's a good thing I took care of this early. By lunchtime the hotel where I made my reservation had sold out.

My pace today wasn't as fast as yesterday's. This was probably because the temperature was warmer. I probably should have gone to the gym, but I didn't feel like driving. More American White Pelicans arrived at the park this morning. The pod of pelicans will continue to grow throughout October and by the time Winter arrives there will be hundreds of them. There will be lots of Double-Crested Cormorants as well but they haven't arrived yet. I enjoy watching the seasons change and always look forward to Fall. It's the one time of year when it's actually pleasant to be outside in Texas.

This week has gone quickly. There are still a lot of things on my to-do list but I'm going to postpone most of them. I'll postpone taking my car in for service until I pay my travel bills. Maybe next month. I'll postpone getting the roof replaced until the stock market starts going up again. Maybe next year. I can't postpone mowing the grass much longer. It grows really fast when there's rain. The only thing I never postpone is doing the laundry. It's easy and strangely satisfying. I did a load of laundry this afternoon.

It's time to make a grocery list again. Prices have come down at the pump a bit, but the cost of food is still going up. One more thing to be frustrated about.

Phantom is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day