Thursday, August 24, 2023

Day 4991

Dawn had to go to the vet for her dental cleaning today. She got her regular sunrise walk, but couldn't eat breakfast this morning. You aren't supposed to eat prior to having anesthesia. Dawn is always excited to ride in the car, but is so disappointed when we wind up at the vet instead of the ice cream store. She was not a happy camper when we dropped her off this morning.

The house was pretty quiet without Dawn today, but actually it is pretty quiet with Dawn as well. I ate my breakfast, took care of some correspondence, and then went to the gym.  It's still way too hot to do any outdoor chores and I don't feel up to fixing the cracks in the ceiling yet. My daily trip to the gym remains my only consistent activity.

I think these trips to the gym are starting to produce results. I'm faster on the indoor track now. It used to take me around 23 minutes to complete a mile. Now it only takes me 20 minutes. I'm gradually adding weights to my strength exercises and doing more repetitions as well. My biggest improvement is on the basketball court. I'm getting much more consistent about completing free throws. I'm certainly not bragging. Fat people still pass me occasionally on the indoor track and almost everyone can lift more than me in the weight room. I think I'm making progress though. My Fitbit agrees.

I have mixed feeling about missing tonight's Crew 7 launch. I didn't apply for credentials after the magazine told me that one of their staffers wanted to attend. Crewed launches are always a big deal down at the space center, but I'm not terribly sorry that I'm missing this one. It's still very hot in Titusville and the launch isn't until 3 AM. I've never been a fan of these late launches. It's very hard to get good pictures and 3 AM is way past my bedtime. I've been to several late night, or technically early morning, launches and I'm always very, very sleepy. I bumped the lens on one of these night launches and all my pictures were out of focus. I'm not even going to stay up and watch this launch on the Space X live feed. I'll be asleep by then.

We weren't able to pick Dawn up at the vet until very late in the day. She was there for most of the day. The dental cleaning didn't take that long, but she needed some x-rays as well. The vet always wants to keep dogs for observation at least two hours after having anesthesia as well to make sure they are stable. Dawn got a good report. There were no cavities and no teeth needed to be pulled. There were no longer signs of gingivitis either. We try our best to keep her teeth clean, but it's hard with a dog that doesn't like you messing with her mouth.

This week has gone quickly. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and have finished watering the lawn. It would be nice if tomorrow were cooler, but the temperature is supposed to reach 107 degrees. That doesn't sound better to me.