Day 4749 - Christmas Day

It was a very quiet day. I didn't talk to anyone all day. Dawn's first day alone with me went better than expected. She was a little nervous last night but she fell asleep long before I did. She wouldn't come out of the bedroom for breakfast this morning, but was eager to eat when I brought her bowl back to the bedroom. The little diva evidently wants breakfast in bed.

I ate my own breakfast and then took Dawn down to the park to do her business. She doesn't like to wear her regular harness when Janet is gone, but will follow me down to the park if I use the special training leash that Janet uses at dog school. She acted fairly normal this morning, smelling everything to find the perfect spot before peeing, but she definitely didn't want to take a walk. As soon as she was finished she headed straight back to the house.

My Waterpik broke today and I tried to order a replacement on Amazon. I discovered that I can't use Janet's Prime account anymore because she's enabled two-factor authentication and gets a code sent to her phone before each login attempt. Oh, well. I used my regular Amazon account and paid the shipping. Amazon Prime is nice but it's not worth each of us having our own Prime account. I use two-factor authentication for almost everything myself. It's weird to think that ten or fifteen years ago you didn't even need passwords on the Internet. A lot has changed over the years. I think I liked things better when I had a little 300 baud dial up modem and getting online was an adventure.

Since both my gym and the mall were closed today, I took a long walk in the park. The temperature had warmed up quite a bit by early afternoon and it was actually a very nice day for a walk. I didn't make great time today, but I did OK. I didn't see the eagles either, although lots of people were looking for them. I've walked this route so many times by now that I can predict my pace along the way almost to the second. There was a little excitement on the way home this afternoon. There were ten police cars and at least thirty cops surrounding a car on a nearby road. The police were lobbing tear gas canisters at the car and using a bull horn to tell the guy inside to come out and surrender. Eventually the driver did surrender and left the car. Then a large group of officers went up the the car with guns drawn to make sure there was nobody else inside. There were lots of spectators taking pictures with their phones but nobody knew what was going on. Clearly this guy was in some serious trouble. Whatever he did, it was a lot more than speeding or running a traffic light. I checked the news but there was nothing about the incident. That's kind of sad. It's probably just another day in the life for Dallas police.

I wish that Dawn didn't get so depressed when Janet is away. I haven't seen her wag her tail yet. She did come out and eat her dinner in the kitchen tonight though. That's a good sign. She came out for her bedtime snack last night as well. Dawn actually adjusts to changes fairly well. I just hate to see her sad.

There isn't a lot on the agenda for the rest of the year. I might be going to another launch in January, but I haven't been approved yet. Basically my life revolves around going down to Kennedy Space Center three or four times a year and and making at least one trip out to McDonald Observatory. I don't have any desire to go anywhere else. I haven't picked up a guitar in years and my little recording studio is gathering dust. Things change I guess. At least I'm still interesting in something. 

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4570

No early start today. Dawn and I slept in again. I was glad to be back on a regular schedule, but my long walk was warmer this morning. My daily routine is more complicated now, but I try to do everything in the proper order. The first thing I do when I get up is fill Dawn's water bowls. Then I unlock the back door and gate and fix Dawn's breakfast. If she won't come out to the kitchen to eat, I take her bowl back to the bedroom and then fix my own breakfast. 

After I finish eating and wash the dishes, we go down to the meadow behind out house so she can poop and pee. I remember to take poop bags with me now. When Janet is home, this is when we typically take our sunrise walk, but Dawn wants to come straight back to the house now. When we return Dawn gets her morning meds. We don't use pill pockets because Dawn likes to take her pills with cream cheese. I've finally learned how to make the bed with Dawn sitting on top because she is very reluctant to leave her favorite place.

This morning I thought the hot water heater was broken because I hadn't heard is come on in a while. It felt cooler to the touch as well. It turned out that nothing was wrong. I just haven't been using a lot of hot water lately. I haven't run the dishwasher or done any laundry since Janet left on vacation. I use so few dishes that I just wash them by hand. There isn't nearly enough dirty laundry to run the washing machine yet. I haven't even been taking out the trash every evening this week. Every two or three days is plenty. I maintain a pretty low profile on my own and still don't know if this is a good thing or pathetic.

Since I didn't get started on my long walk until a little after 9 AM today, the sun was already high in the sky. There was a little breeze when I was near the shoreline, but it wasn't enough to cool me off. I don't know how the guys working on the new bike trail can stand the heat. They are out in the sun all day. I didn't see many ducks this morning, but the Monk Parakeets and Purple Martins were active. Both of these birds are very loud. Nobody really knows where the Monk Parakeets came from. They aren't migratory and typically are found in South America. Some think a family pet got loose, but that doesn't explain why around a 100 of the colorful green birds live at the lake now.

Dawn usually eats lunch with Janet, but I don't have a lunch routine. I typically don't eat lunch at all. I've tried to duplicate Janet's routine, but Dawn won't come out to the kitchen with me. She loves sliced turkey and cheese though. So I always take a little bit of turkey and cheese back to the bed for her. She loves carrots too so I always save a few carrot slices from my pot roast for her. Dawn definitely doesn't live on table scraps. Her real meals consist of a special prescription diet designed to prevent bladder stones from forming. A little Potassium Citrate powder is added to her evening meal and a Probiotic supplement is added to her morning meal. Janet has researched Dawn's diet carefully with our vet. I just follow directions and make sure she is eating the right amount of everything at the right time. I'm a forgetful person, so Janet always puts Dawn's meds in labeled little plastic baggies before she goes on vacation. Each day there is a bag for morning meds and another bag for evening meds. I appreciate this. After taking her meds, I mark them as being taken on a calendar in the kitchen.

It was a slow afternoon, so I watched another movie called I Think We're Alone Now. This atypical end of the world film featured a guy who actually liked the idea of being the last person on earth until he discovered that he wasn't alone after all. Considering that the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was directed by the same women who also directed the first three episodes of The Handmaidens Tale, it didn't get good reviews. Another film I never heard of until I found it on Amazon Prime. I don't want to make a habit of watching a movie on my computer every afternoon. I need to find something constructive to do tomorrow.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4380 - Winter Solstice

Today is the shortest day of the year. I can't wait for the days to get longer again. I've never been a fan of Winter, so I'll look forward to getting a little more daylight each day, even though there are many cold mornings yet to come. It was near freezing again this morning but the sky was clear and the temperature warmed up rapidly. I wore two coats on our sunrise walk, was able to shed one of these coats when I took my long walk after breakfast, and when when we took Dawn on her second walk later in the afternoon, I only need a very light jacket. A second walk for Dawn has been added to our daily routine on days when Janet is home. Dawn definitely enjoys the extra activity. For an older dog, she has a lot more energy than we initially thought.

My Fedex package has still not been delivered. Absolutely nothing happened today. The package still appears to be sitting at a distribution warehouse in a nearby town. I tried without any success to contact the Fedex case manager investigating my misplaced package and got nowhere. These people are supposed to contact you within 24 hours, but it's been five days now. I would drive over to the distribution center myself and pick up the package if I could, but these facilities are off limits. I have been told several times that I would not be allowed inside. It's all very frustrating. The only good news is that I have finally been able to contact the Chinese manufacturer and they are going to investigate the lost shipment from their end.

I really need to find something to do other than walking and obsessing over lost packages. These days are getting really monotonous. Unfortunately there just isn't much that interests me at the moment. I don't really feel like I'm a part of the space community since my trips to Kennedy Space Center are so infrequent. I envy the local Florida space photographers who seem to be on site almost every single week. I'm not really part of an astronomy community either. I still like to volunteer at McDonald Observatory, but it is a long and tiring drive to West Texas and the observatory only needs me about once a year. There are local astronomy clubs in the area, but I have become reluctant to drive at night. Almost every single day I read about someone randomly getting shot on a Dallas freeway. It is not a good time to be driving around very late at night.

It's too bad I don't enjoy watching TV more. There are more movies available for streaming than I could watch in a lifetime. Unfortunately, very few of them have any interest to me. I did notice that Season Six of The Expanse has started. The first two episodes are already available on Amazon Prime. Even this simple pleasure seems difficult. For some inexplicable reason Amazon Prime movies won't run if you are using Safari. You keep getting an "incompatible plug in" message. I was finally able to access the new season by using Firefox, but quickly discovered that my computer couldn't keep up with the high resolution stream. I eventually discovered how to lower the data transfer rate, but by then it was time for dinner. Oh, well. At least I"ll have something to do tomorrow.

I have to remind myself not to join the fray and start arguing about politics on the blog. It's tempting, but just because everyone else is doing this doesn't mean it is right for me. I do have opinions but I don't think I'm going to be able to convince you to change yours. We have all dug in our heels. I've never seen the country so divided. Sadly, I don't realistically see us coming together on anything important in my lifetime. I find myself increasingly nostalgic about my childhood. The period of time between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Vietnam Way was pretty darn good.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4276

The days are starting to run together. I'm having trouble telling one day from another. Long walks in the park are normal again. I still have some discomfort in my abdomen, but it is indistinguishable from a mild upset stomach. We still start our day with a sunrise walk, but Dawn isn't adventurous anymore. She's stuck to her basic one mile loop for several weeks now. I'm still having shredded wheat and fruit for breakfast. The Vitamix hasn't sat unused for this long in quite a while.

The missing Amazon package mysteriously appeared in our mailbox this morning. We have no idea whether Amazon redelivered the package or if a neighbor brought it over. If it was a neighbor, I have no idea which one. The house in the Amazon delivery picture wasn't remotely familiar. All is well though. Dawn now has the medicine she needs.

We woke up to a severe storm warning, but even though the storm was headed directly toward us in the weather radar, we got surprisingly little rain. For some reason the storm broke up and dissipated just before it reached our neighborhood. Although all we got were a few light sprinkles, the storm did keep the temperature cooler today. It felt more like Fall than Summer when I took my walk in the park.

I felt like spending another day sleeping, but Janet kind of shamed me into working. She's always busy around the house. I helped clean the windows which I should have done weeks ago. The outside of our windows get covered with spider webs in the Summer. The windows are a mess to clean which is why I tend to ignore them. The windows look great now, although I spent the afternoon covered in spiders and webs. Some of the spiders were pretty big. We have lots of glass in the house and the spiders like to build their web next to the windows because that's where the insects congregate at night. I'd like to think that there is some sort of benefit to having all these spiders, but so far I haven't found any.

The grass is looking pretty ratty. I don't feel up to pushing the mower yet, but I don't want to hire a lawn crew either. I'm trying to convince myself that the tall grass is developing equally deep roots. Maybe this is true because the grass still looks pretty green. Actually, everything is pretty green this year. Usually by mid September all the vegetation is dry and brown.

The current Covid surge is kind of weird. According to everything I read, hospitals are overflowing with Covid patients and things have never been worse. If this is true, why are cruise ships operating, why are stadiums full, and why are hotels, airlines, and resorts all running commercials urging people to travel again? I think the State Fair of Texas is planning on a normal in person run this Fall. Something is wrong with this picture. I still don't know anybody who has gotten sick, but maybe I just lead a sheltered life.

I think tomorrow will be nearly the same as today. No window cleaning though. Hopefully what we did today will last for the rest of the year.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4033

Dawn seems to be responding well to rest and Rimadyl. She isn't limping anymore and isn't having the problems getting up and down that she was a few days ago. We took her in a field behind the house for a few minutes, but didn't attempt to walk her. If one day of rest is good, two or three days is probably even better.

I continued walking by myself. The skies were clear, but it was still pretty chilly. I follow the same paths that we walk with Dawn, but the distance seem longer and a bit more tiring without a dog. This doesn't really make sense, but it's how my body feels. Maybe I'm walking a bit faster without Dawn. Just like yesterday, there were lots of interesting birds I could have photographed, but I didn't have a camera with me. When I got home I discovered that you can't watch Amazon Prime movies using Safari. You have to use Firefox instead. You'd think that Apple and Amazon would be more compatible, but maybe not. Apple probably wants you to watch their movies instead. Facebook doesn't work very well with Safari either. It's kind of a nuisance. All these companies are optimizing their applications and systems for use on phones. They seem to have forgotten that a few old geezers like me still like to use older computers and never bother to upgrade their operating system.

I eventually did figure out how to watch Amazon Prime movies on Firefox, but by then I'd lost interest in watching Season 5 of The Expanse. I've forgotten what the first four seasons were about anyway. I guess I'll wait until I'm really, really bored to watch this show. I'm not quite there yet.

I'm still finding mistakes in my company website update. It's embarrassing. I made a few more tweaks today when I discovered that the site didn't look like I expected when I looked at it on a laptop. Life was so much easier when everyone looked at websites on CRT screens that were all more or less the same size.   Now you've got to design sites that look good on a huge variety of different smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. I don't know why I'm concerned. Even fewer people visit my company website than read this blog.

I didn't sent my outline to Sky & Telescope today after all. When I looked at the outline this morning, I realized that I forgot a few important elements. I'll rework things and send it to my editor sometime next week. The magazine has already told me that there is no hurry on this. This probably means that it will take me another year to get something published again.

I wonder if the world will ever feel normal again? I'm tired of feeling like I'm living in a Steven King novel. I still watch the business channels, but I've pretty much abandoned watching the news. We watched an old black and white rerun of the Andy Griffith Show during dinner this evening and the world seemed so much more peaceful back then. I'm glad that this world was my childhood instead of the world we live in now.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3991

The new dehumidifier arrived today. Amazon Prime is still kind of amazing to me. Things really arrive fast. This new machine looks and feels basically just like the old one. It's the same size. There's an air intake vent, an exhaust vent, and a bucket that fills with water that the compressor extracts from the air. The controls on the top let you control the fan speed and set a target humidity level you'd like to reach. For some reason the instructions said to leave the machine in an upright position for two hours before turning it on. I'd never turn a dehumidifier on its side anyway, but I followed the instructions. The new dehumidifier was pretty noisy when I finally turned it on, but so was the old one. You get used to the noise. Hopefully this new dehumidifier will remove a lot more water from the house than the old machine. I'm hoping to get the old dehumidifier replaced under the warranty program as well. The house is big enough that two dehumidifiers would be useful.

Yesterday was cold. Today was much warmer. Texas weather makes no sense to me. It all seems so random. I always go out in the backyard after I wake up to see what type of jacket I need on our walk. There are days in November when I need two warm coats. There are other days when I can wear a t-shirt. Occasionally, our air conditioner still comes on in November. Some of the Spring flowers seem to re-bloom in the Fall when everything else is dying. That's a little confusing too. When we got the weather and the clothing sorted out, we had a nice walk. Dawn still has lots of energy and seems to feel a lot better than she did in the weeks before her seizure.

I didn't accomplish much today. I did get the new dehumidifier running, but that was about it. I tried to call my HVAC guy to see if he could do the diagnostic report that the manufacturer wanted before they would replace my old dehumidifier. No luck there. The place was closed for the holidays. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to set up the menus on my new camera. This camera offer a a lot of flexibility, but that means there are a lot of buttons and menu items to remember. I should probably watch some YouTube videos on my old cameras as well. I still haven't completely mastered any of them.

I'm wondering when I'll hear whether I've been accepted to attend that Artemis-1 static fire test at Stennis Space Center in late December. If I'm going to go I need to start planning. It seems kind of weird to want to go all the way to Mississippi to watch four rocket engines fire for eight minutes when the rocket isn't even going anywhere. This test is important though. The next stop for the rocket after the static fire is the moon. Hopefully Covid outbreaks won't continue to get worse. I think Southwest Airlines is going to start filling center seats again in December.

We had Thanksgiving dinner all over again tonight. Probably everybody else did too. There are always so many leftovers after a big meal like this. The meal was just as good the second time. I imagine there is enough left for a third time as well. I do love a really good smoked ham. I see lots of ham and cheese sandwiches in my future.

It looks like it is going to rain tomorrow. I'm hoping that we can get Dawn walked and I can take care of the grocery shopping before the rain begins. I'm never fond of rain. When it rains the roof may leak. A sudden storm may knock over one of the Oak trees in the back yard. Roads become slippery when it rains and Dallas drivers never slow down. Dawn refuses to go outside and pee when it rains as well. If it absolutely has to rain, I prefer that it happens at night when I can sleep through the whole thing. 

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3648

I'm trying to expand my horizons. I went to a different part of town and tried a German restaurant for breakfast. The place was crowded with affluent older people and the food was pretty good. This was not like the food I used to eat when I worked in Germany. I had a big plate filled with smoked pork chops, eggs and skillet potatoes. I remember Germans started the day with much lighter fare. In Erlangen I always ate a piece of toast and a single soft boiled egg in an egg cup like all the other locals.

When I returned home, I watched a video of the Starliner launch that I'd really wanted to attend in Florida. I has planned to watch today's launch live on NASA TV, but slept through it. Things didn't go so well. A spacecraft clock got confused and sent the capsule into the wrong orbit. It will be unable to dock with the space station and they'll probably have to do the important orbital test all over again. Oops. Boeing has certainly had its share of high profile problems. First the 737 mess and now this. The big Artemis rocket I visited in New Orleans is also a Boeing project. I bet the Starliner failure will slow Artemis down as well.

It was another cold day. I wasn't that eager to take my walk this morning, but I didn't want to sit around and do nothing. I put on two coats and a pair of gloves and off I went. I wonder if I even have a warm enough coat for winter nights at the observatory. It's much colder in Fort Davis than it is here.   There was light rain in the forecast today, but I managed to complete my walk without getting wet. Today I saw a very tiny woodpecker I need to identify and a tree with strange translucent orange berries. The woodpecker flew away but I did get a picture of the berries.

I learned today that Amazon videos won't play on Safari, Firefox, or my TV. Janet has no problems watching them on her iPad, but the only way I could get them to play was to download a new version of Chrome. I don't really like to use Chrome. After a little research, I discovered that all the problems I was having had something to do with digital rights management. Evidently my older computer doesn't play well with the new rules. Oh, well. As I said yesterday, I'm not all that interested in movies anyway.

Every year around this time I need to decide whether to renew my Avid subscriptions. Last year I decided to drop Media Composer and this year I'm dropping Pro Tools as well. These licenses are expensive and I just don't use this stuff anymore. I have to admit that it's finally getting easier to acknowledge I'm retired. Who was I kidding. I'm not going to shoot any more corporate videos. I don't even know any corporate people these days.

I still can't figure out why I don't sleep as well under blankets. It's counterintuitive. It seems like you'd sleep better when you are cozy and warm. Fitbit says otherwise though. Could it be that I'm sleeping just fine and my Fitbit just doesn't work under a blanket? As I learned from my Amazon Prime experience today, technology can be confusing.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3647

I got my first call for volunteers from McDonald Observatory. They need help during Spring Break. Hmmm. Do I really want to go out there during Spring Break? Maybe the kids who choose to go to an observatory during break are better behaved than the kids who go to Fort Lauderdale. I'm not sure about the weather in March either. I have visions of icy roads and jackknifed eighteen wheelers. The letter made me realize that I really am an on-site volunteer now and I need to figure out what to do about living arrangements. I'm still hoping that they'll let me stay at the astronomer's lodge during my initial volunteer trip. I'm not quite ready for the idea of living in an RV yet.

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, the roof was leaking badly and Dash had become incontinent. Every day I was cleaning up water and pee while watching Dash grow weaker. It's much quieter now, but sometimes it seems too quiet. I miss having a dog around the house. I don't miss watching a friend fade away. It seems like a long time since Dash died, but the memories are still vivid. Dealing with illness is hard. At this point in my life I just hope that Janet and I stay healthy.

I'm doing my part by walking every day. I could probably do more, but I could certainly do less. I actually think I'm walking more now than I was when Dot and Dash were healthy. Walking seemed easier back then, but I was a lot younger. I wish aging wasn't such an uphill battle. I've come to the conclusion that I can't turn back the clock, but maybe I can manage to slow it down a bit. Hey, walking and exercise have got to be better than just sitting around.

I saw a TV ad today about Season 4 of The Expanse. I'd almost forgotten about that show. I guess it's on Amazon Prime now. I'd prefer watching the show on TV, but Janet has Prime, so I guess I can still see the show if I want. It just doesn't seem as important now. There were all these shows like Babylon 5, Farscape, Lexx, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly that I used to watch religiously. I rarely watch TV at all anymore. I wonder what has changed? Maybe I just don't sit around as much.

I washed the new photo backdrop and Janet helped me fold it up to put away for another year. I was amazed at how easy this 10 foot by twenty foot piece of cloth was to wash. It was light enough to fit in our home washing machine and the colors didn't fade or bleed at all. Having a washable backdrop for taking Santa Paws photos is a game changer. I never could wash the old hand painted backdrops and over time the smell of dog pee became overwhelming.

What are these purple berries I'm seeing everywhere in the park? A quick Google search told me that I was looking at a White Fringe Tree. That couldn't be right. I'm thinking that these are just Common Privet Bushes. Privet is an invasive species and that would explain why these little trees are everywhere in the park.

This week has gone quickly.  I've taken this week's trash to the curb and am deciding what to do for breakfast tomorrow. Breakfast has become like those science fiction series I used to wait for. I've got a whole city full of restaurants to try and I'm not even hungry.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3089

What a race. Justify is simply a spectacular horse. It isn't often you get to see a triple crown winner. Well, we did see one just three years ago, but it's still pretty rare. Hey, I'll admit it. I like horse racing. It's a simple sport. The fastest horse wins. Baseball games are too long for me. I enjoy a good football game if the right teams are playing, but I rapidly lose interest in basketball and soccer. Horse racing is just right. After an intense couple of minutes, it is all over. I wonder if Justify will retire after today's race? Whatever the future has in store for this horse, he certainly deserved today's win.

Janet discovered that you get 10% off on anything you buy at Whole Foods if you're an Amazon Prime member. That almost pays for the membership right there. I always thought Amazon Prime was pretty expensive, but a lot of people I know are believers. I'll probably become a believer next year as well. The Expanse is moving to Amazon after SyFy failed to renew the show for another season. It's weird. We've got so many different ways to watch TV now, and I spend my time watching old black and white Perry Mason shows I've already seen.

I've got to keep reminding myself that an offer from an auction house isn't exactly a sale. If no one bids on your item, you can actually end up owing the auction house money. There are no guarantees, but at least there is a market for art and collectibles. Try selling an old computer. Nobody wants an old, slow computer. You can't even give an old computer to schools. I've come to realize that there is a sweet spot for selling everything. I waited too long to sell my Citroën SM. I probably won't live long enough for my odd collection of calculator watches to become valuable. Lets hope the things I'm consigning now are right in the sweet spot.

There's a lot of talk about suicide right now. I wonder if anything can really be done about it. Suicidal people seldom reach out for help and are often very good at hiding their feelings. My mom had several suicidal episodes during her life, but if you didn't know her extremely well, you never would have known anything was wrong. I'm no expert, but maybe suicidal people just care too much. People who don't give a shit are rarely suicidal. They just drive other people crazy. Have you ever heard of a self absorbed person who spends all day talking about themselves committing suicide? Me neither.

Dash is doing better than I expected this Summer. It's getting really hot, but as long as we confine our walks to sunrise and sunset, we're fine. Lately, there's even been a nice breeze when we walk. The key is to stay inside the during the middle of the day. The sun shows no mercy at noon in Texas. Dash likes to naps during the middle of the day anyway. I should probably just nap with him. There isn't much on my schedule.

One of the few things that's always on my schedule s going to the gym on Sunday. That's where I'll be tomorrow. It sure beats mowing the grass on a hot Summer day.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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