Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Day 4668

I surprised myself with how much I got done today. I took care of a bunch of small, insignificant chores that I'd been ignoring for far too long. I cleared away the spiderwebs that have been collecting under the eaves. I cleaned the living room windows. I watered the plants inside the atrium which is actually harder than it sounds. I cleaned the toilet. I did a load of laundry. And finally I vacuumed all the carpeted rooms in the house. The house still looks about the same, but all these things really did need to be done.

There was still plenty of time for walking. We got a later start on our sunrise walk today so it wasn't quite as dark outside. It wasn't quite as cold either, although I still needed a light jacket. After breakfast I took my long walk and actually made pretty good time. I've done this walk so many times now that I can pretty accurately guess what my time will be at each mile marker. I'm only off by four or five seconds these days. I can usually tell how fast I'm going by the sound of my footsteps. It's amazing that my brain can do all these little calculations while I'm just daydreaming. Truthfully, the walk isn't that interesting anymore, but I burn a lot more calories walking outdoors than I do at the gym.

I was out walking in the park when the Crew 5 mission launched and I didn't really care. I watched a replay of the launch on my computer later in the day. I have attended a number of manned launched down at Kennedy Space Center and they are all more or less the same. A few hours before the launch the astronauts get in Teslas and drive out to the launch pad. Sometimes I've been invited to watch the astronauts leave the iconic NASA crew quarters and say goodbye to their families but other times I've been excluded from this small group. Everyone sets up their cameras near the countdown clock and waits for the launch and then ten minutes later it is all over. Actually you get a lot better view of things watching the Space X live stream, but it is still nice to be there in person.

Dawn still doesn't like to nap with me. Whenever I come in the bedroom during the day, Dawn leaves the room and goes out to her dog bed in the kitchen. I'm sure Dawn has her reasons, but this just seems rude to me. If Janet is home Dawn is much nicer to me, but she is uncomfortable being in the house alone with me. Oh, well. It is what it is. Strangely, when I vacuumed the bedroom this afternoon, Dawn stayed on the bed. She didn't mind the vacuum at all. She just doesn't like sharing the bed with me during the day. Nighttime is fine. I often wake up with Dawn right next to me. All this seems very strange, but no stranger than most aspects of modern life. It's a weird world we live in these days.

We've got to get up extra early tomorrow morning. I need to drive Janet down to Baylor for some medical tests. There should still be time to give Dawn her sunrise walk, but it depends on how organized we are. It doesn't matter if it's dark outside. We are prepared with plenty of lights now. Dawn even has a spiffy new green lighted collar now.