Day 3496

I think I've reached my limit. It basically takes me all day to take 20,000 steps. I'm certainly not walking all day, but I don't think I could go much further. I need to eat. I need to rest my feet. It doesn't hurt to take a nap between trips outside either. I see people at the gym and on my walks who are doing much more than I am, put most of them appear much younger. According to Mr. Fitbit 20,000 steps translates to over 9 miles. This isn't half bad for a 71 year old. I bet my Dad would have lived a few years longer if he'd done the same.

I was a lot better on the basketball court this morning. I still wonder about consistency, but I guess I am fairly consistent. Without a dog to wake me, I almost always get six and a half hours of sleep. I eat breakfast at 7:30 AM and dinner at 6:30 PM. I never eat lunch. I go out to eat on Friday mornings and to the gym on Sundays. If I could think of something unique to do on each day of the week, I probably would. It's nice to have a routine. The routine couldn't involve doing things with other people though. That would be way too complicated.

I went back to the grocery store on the way home from the gym. Even though I'd already stocked up for the week on Friday, there were still a few things I needed. The way Janet and I divide up shopping chores is that she always gets certain things and I get others. This never varies. I completely forget about Janet's groceries until they're gone. I imagine that I'll be going back to the store again.

When I was flipping through channels on the TV this morning, I noticed that CBS was gone. This is a big, basic channel to disappear, so I was wondering what was going on. It turns out that CBS is having a fight with AT&T about payment and decided to pull all their content off U-Verse until they get what they want. This seems kind of nasty but it makes you realize what a tangled web of conflicting interests the business world is. A lot of shows have disappeared from Netflix too because the owners of the shows decided to start their own streaming channels. It's a good thing I don't watch television very much or I would be mad.

When I was walking today, I noticed a Facebook friend sailing on the lake. I only recognized this guy because he is always posting pictures of his boat. An orange boat is easy to recognize. A lot of people take pictures in the park. I take pictures of flowers. Almost everybody else takes selfies. I still don't understand the whole concept of selfies. Why would you want to take a picture of yourself?

I'm going to miss all the space news now that the Apollo 11 celebrations are over. For a space geek like me it was kind of nice to have non-stop coverage of space related events. It was hard to go online or turn on the TV without discovering some new bit of trivia I didn't know before. I wish people would stay interested. I'm really hoping that someone will land on Mars while I'm still alive.

I'm going up to the Dalmatian kennels tomorrow to meet with some people who are thinking of adopting Jenga. Pongo got adopted today. I'm delighted that these dogs are finding homes so quickly but I'm going to miss them. There's already a new boy getting checked out at the vet. I don't even know what his name is yet, but I'm sure I'll be photographing him soon.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3495

There have been so many documentaries about Apollo 11 this week that I feel I know more about the space program now than I did when all this was actually happening. Looking back, it is amazing that John Kennedy's promise to send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade was actually fulfilled. Kennedy himself was starting to have second thoughts about the huge expense of the program just before he was assassinated in Dallas. I don't think we could do something like this today. Can you imagine today's politically correct politicians putting Wernher von Braun in charge of the space program? During the 60's Americans hadn't become tribal yet. Despite all the unrest surrounding the Vietnam War, most Americans still had a lot of national pride. They really wanted to beat the Russians to the moon. I can't even imagine 400,000 people working toward a common goal anymore. That's how many people the Apollo program employed at its peak. Just about everyone my age knows someone who had a connection to the Apollo program.

I'm glad we persevered and kept going despite all the initial failures. It proved that you can do just about anything if you stay focused and put your mind to it. Many of those early space pioneers genuinely believed we would be living in cities on Mars by now. It was definitely possible. They didn't realize how fickle politicians can be and how quickly dreams can fade. When I was a kid I thought we'd be living on Mars by now too. I remember reading articles about space travel in my Dad's copies of Scientific American. We were already designing atomic powered rockets in Nevada during the late 1950's. Project Orion was going to take us to Mars using a rocket powered by firing a series of nuclear bombs. What could possibly go wrong?

I didn't feel like fixing our usual Saturday breakfast. I didn't watch old Have Gun Will Travel episodes while I was eating either. I found some granola that was still sitting in a box in the kitchen that I'd bought over a year ago. It tasted fine. Apparently granola lasts forever. I went shopping for fresh fruit early today, hoping to get my morning walk in before it got too hot. Once again I failed. I think it was too hot before I woke up this morning. At least there was a breeze. It was a warm breeze but it was better than nothing.

My feeble attempts at being useful today were limited to defrosting the small refrigerator and washing the car. I don't count the long walks as being useful. I'm not even sure they are healthy in all this heat. It's something to do though. I do feel like I'm starting to get some muscle tone back. In the Winter these walks might even be enjoyable.

It's time to go to the gym again. It would make sense to use the indoor track for walks but I'm reluctant to do this. I like my rituals. I've convinced myself that memorizing all the details of my route will keep my memory sharp. I make a point to look for specific objects every several hundred yards. So far, I'm memorized a lot of signage, know where to look for Egrets and turtles, and am slowly learning the names of all the plants I see. I imagine I'll take 20,000 steps tomorrow. That's what I do on Sundays.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3494

After breakfast this morning, I went and got groceries for the week. Usually Janet cooks on the weekends and I eat leftovers during the week. No leftovers this week. Janet is on vacation with her sister and the refrigerator is empty. I'm not much of a cook so I got some more of those Cadence Kitchen flash frozen meals. I was real excited when this concept was initially introduced, but I'd almost forgotten about the stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the company had added a bunch of new dishes to their repertoire. I will be eating Pesto Shrimp, Creamy Arbol Chicken, and Pulled Pork with Pineapple this week. Did I fix any of these things tonight? Nope. I just had a hot dog.

The backyard birdbath sculpture is back together. I took the pieces over to the Creative Arts Center where my friend is teaching a metal arts class. I thought it would take weeks to fix the sculpture, but she welded it back together on her lunch break. I was surprised that the Creative Arts Center has been around since 1966 and I'd never even heard of it. It wasn't that far away either. There was some really impressive work on display and a ton of interesting classes that were open to anyone. Maybe I should take a class. Or maybe not. I am very ambivalent these days. It's nice to know that a place like this exists. At any rate, if I ever feel the urge to carve stone, fuse glass, throw pots, or learn to weave I'll know where to go.

There is so much information online about the Apollo Fiftieth Anniversary that I have become overwhelmed with facts and figures. I read the articles and watch the YouTube videos wondering why it took fifty years for the world to become interested in this stuff. Probably as soon as the anniversary is over people will forget about the moon again. When I read some of the biographies of people who worked on the Apollo program, I'm amazed at how young many of them were at the time. Some of the engineers manning the consoles at mission control weren't much older than I was. I never realized when I was in architecture school that there were people my own age working on the space program. Of course there were many people my own age fighting in Vietnam as well. All these programs about the Apollo 11 Anniversary are making me realize that 1969 was a long time ago.

I took my morning walk an hour earlier than usual today. It didn't make any difference. It was still way too hot. If I was smart, I'd get up really early like I used to when I walked Dot and Dash. Unfortunately, I'm still enjoying getting a good night's sleep. You can't really walk and sleep at the same time. I'm trying to convince myself that sweating profusely is good for you. Who knows. Maybe it is. I do drink lots of water when I return home, and I always wear a hat now, so I'm probably OK.

I wonder how long I can avoid mowing the grass. It's starting to get long again. I'm ready to patch the tears in the roof coating but the roofer hasn't delivered the silicon yet. There's a new Dalmatian that needs to be photographed too. I guess I'll start by getting more fresh fruit tomorrow morning. I'll eat a peach and then decide what to do next.

Beemer is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3491

I guess I was surprised that the carpenter actually showed up. My expectations are pretty low these days. I liked the guy. His life seemed like the carpenter's version of mine. He'd worked for a number of large construction companies and employed other people himself before concluding that he was happiest working alone. He asked all the right questions and seemed knowledgable. If his bid seems reasonable, he'll be the guy I use to rebuild the greenhouse. Hopefully, by the end of the Summer I can cross this task off my list.

I also called a sculptor friend to see if she could repair a backyard sculpture that got broken during the same June storm that destroyed the greenhouse. Since I was feeling industrious, I climbed up on the roof to see if I could patch some small tears in the elastomer coating using the Liquid Rubber in a Can that I bought at Costco a few weeks ago. After examining the area carefully, I chickened out and begged the roofer who's trying to avoid me to bring me a new supply of the Armor Flex silicon material instead. If I use anything else, I think the repair will fail because silicon only sticks to silicon. The Liquid Rubber in a Can also had all sorts of danger warnings in very small print in the can. I don't have a good feeling about this stuff.

I was a little envious to learn that several of the folks I went to Kennedy Space Center with were participating in Apollo 11 50th Anniversary events today. One got invited to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama to hear Buzz Aldrin and other Apollo era astronauts speak at a special 50th Anniversary Dinner. Another was at the Smithsonian in Washington DC for the unveiling of the restored spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore on the moon. A third was taking his wife to see a Duran Duran concert in the Rocket Garden at the Space Center. There wasn't much on my agenda. After talking with the carpenter, I just took another very hot walk in the park.

I don't know why this summer seems like the hottest ever. Last year it was well over 100 degrees at this time. I remember a year that was so hot that the lake started to dry up. So far this year it is only in the 90's. It still seems miserable to me though. Maybe I'm just getting old. I need to start watering the grass more often. Everything is turning brown and going to die soon. I hate the thought of humongous water bills though. I find myself wishing for rain and hating rain at the same time. Basically, I'm ready for Summer to be over.

Fifty years ago this morning Apollo 11 started its journey to the moon. There certainly wasn't anything momentous going on today. As I channel hopped while I was drinking my smoothie for breakfast the only things on the news was more of the endless bickering you see in Washington DC these days. I'm enjoying all the documentaries about the Apollo 11 Anniversary, but I wish something equally exciting was going on now.

In lieu of excitement, I picked up a prescription at the pharmacy and finished updating the Dalmatian Rescue website. At least I did something today.

Laura is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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