Thursday, April 6, 2023

Day 4851

It felt like Winter again today. How is this even possible? A week ago it was 90 degrees outside and now I'm wearing my down jacket and gloves again. This month every day brings something new. You never know what to expect. I'll take the cold over rain any day though. I've got plenty of warm coats.

The launch I applied for yesterday has already been postponed. Something mechanically is wrong with the rocket and a new launch date has not been announced yet. This is why it is so hard to plan these trips to Kennedy Space Center. Even when I do manage to secure press credentials, the launch itself is never certain. I've made several trips where the launch was canceled after I arrived and I ended up seeing nothing. Much more common is a one day delay. I've experienced a lot of those. You've got to stay flexible and hope you can extend all your reservations.

Dawn enjoyed her early walk this morning, but I can't says the same for my long walk later in the day. I waited a while to leave the house, hoping it would get warmer, but it never did. I guess today wasn't any colder than your average day in early January, but this is April. Winter is supposed to be over by mid April. I really doubt that we will get another hard freeze, but forty-five degrees with a brisk wind still feels like Winter.

After I returned from my chilly long walk, I basically did nothing for the rest of the day. Janet likes to watch movies, but I rarely do. I haven't picked up a book in a while either. Sometimes I test cameras and other equipment. Other times I do a load of laundry. Mostly I just waste time on the Internet. I catch up on the day's news on Google and check my Facebook feed. Neither of these activities gives me a lot of faith in the direction the world is headed. It's probably not surprising that I've spent a lot of time messing with the Polaris star tracker. It has been challenging to master this device since there is no instruction manual and it is still potentially useful in the future. It keeps me busy. The star tracker seems to have replaced the interest I once had for mechanical watches.

I wonder how much longer I can keep using this computer. It's a Mid 2010 27-inch iMac and can't be updated anymore. Almost every day I discover something new that isn't working the way it used to. The hardware seems to work fine, but the Apple operating system, browsers, and even mail have changed a lot. Website developers have changed the way they code things and I frequently find that windows won't open or pages won't scroll properly. Sometimes my WiFi connection disappears completely and I have to reboot the computer to restore it. Oddly I still have no desire to replace the computer. I liked the way the Internet and computers were in 2010. The bulky old Mac desktops I used before 2010 were even better. I had one with four hard drives, two Apple superdrives, and a modded CPU that was great. I think I detect a theme here. I just don't like change.

I think Dawn has a hard time with change as well. She spent so many years as a breeding dog in a puppy mill run by two old men that I'm probably always going to seem like a kennel attendant to her. In her mind Janet will always be the person who rescued her and I am Janet's assistant. I'm good for walks and fixing dinner, but she will never completely trust me. It's a shame that she doesn't trust me since we spend most of the day together in the house. Dawn has her room in the bedroom and I have mine in the office. She will follow me out to the back yard when she needs to pee and she always eats the meals I fix, but I can see a huge difference as soon as Janet comes home. She instantly becomes a happy dog again.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day


Watch of the Day