Day 3913

Jacket weather has arrived. Our recent rain was accompanied by a cold front, bringing considerably cooler temperatures. This was the first time I've needed a jacket since late last Spring. The last time I actually remember wearing a coat was last March when I was out at McDonald Observatory. There must have been a few more cold days after I returned to Dallas, but my memory isn't as good as it used to be.

The heavy rains washed away all the food the guy set out for the ducks and geese the other day. What a shame. The huge bag of feed was probably pretty expensive. Maybe the ducks ate it all before the rain arrived, but I doubt it. At any rate, I hope the ducks and geese ate hearty before the rain washed their unexpected treasure away. I'm not even sure that the wildlife in the park needs any help finding food, but it made me feel good to see the man attempt to take care of a gaggle of angry geese. People can fend for themselves. My loyalty remains with the animals.

Space X and ULA have both added me to their media lists. I received the notice from Space X today. I don't know if this will amount to anything in the future, but it's another step in the long road to legitimacy as a space journalist. I also got a letter from SpaceFlight Magazine saying that my author copies of the October issue with my article about the Artemis program were on their way. I now have three published articles under my belt and am confident that the fourth will eventually appear in a future issue of Sky and Telescope. This is really slow progress but it beats doing nothing. It's not exactly a natural transition going from writing ads about soft drinks and tacos to becoming a legitimate space journalist.

I was proud of Dawn today. She seems to slowly be learning to trust me. Today Janet had to be gone for a considerable amount of time and Dawn came when I called and ate her meals in the kitchen normally. This may not sound like much, but less than a month ago, she refused to come out of the bedroom until Janet returned to the house. I think this will all work out fine. I have no idea what Dawn went through earlier in her life, but it clearly wasn't good. I think the key to winning Dawn's trust is to be patient and consistent. She may never be completely comfortable with men, but I think she will eventually become comfortable with me. I can see a difference already.

I saw a video today where someone took the music from Bladerunner and added pictures of San Francisco with dark orange forest fire skies. It was kind of eerie, especially considering that the original Bladerunner movie was supposed to take place in 2019. I guess we are entering science fiction territory here. You wonder what else can go wrong in 2020. We've still got three months to go.

I've taken this week's trash to the curb. I'm so bored now that I'm starting to miss my restaurant breakfasts on Friday mornings. I doubt that I'll be going out any time soon though. They now say that indoor dining is pretty high on the danger list. Janet and I survived our birthday dinners, but we'll just stick with take-out meals for a while. When you've stayed healthy this long, you start to get superstitious.

Cleo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3763

Dash died one year ago today. Janet and I were devastated. We were also very tired after tending to sick dogs for almost five years. Neither of us thought we would ever have a dog again. Here we are one year later with another Dalmatian sleeping in our bed. Life is full of surprises and Dawn was one of the good ones. It just goes to show that it doesn't pay to predict the future.

I don't think any one of us could have predicted that we would be living in Chapter Two of a Steven King novel right now. I certainly wasn't thinking that a plague was coming on the day Dash died. Sure there were those who told us that a pandemic was likely many years ago. They wrote books about the coming storm. There were also people telling us that aliens were living among us and that the Illuminati were secretly controlling the world. We ignored the threat of a pandemic the same way we've been ignoring the threat of nuclear war. If you want to lead a normal life, you tend to believe things that let you continue living normally.

I have a friend who has recovered from the coronavirus. He said that fighting the disease was horrible but that when he came out the other end, he felt like he had acquired a superpower. I found this interesting and somewhat prophetic. Universal testing is coming. It will take a while, but it is the only way for society to get a handle on the pandemic. Eventually we will know who is safe and who is a carrier. The people who have developed an immunity and are safe will have a superpower. They can resume normal life. The carriers who can still transmit the disease may not be sick themselves, but nobody will want to get anywhere near them. They will become social pariahs. Nobody will be able to hide because when this day arrives, the detection software Apple and Google are developing now will have been perfected and built into the operating systems of our phones. You know how addicted we are to are to our phones. When your phone starts to beep you will run the other way.

I find myself thinking more about the societal changes to come in the days ahead than about the people dying today. Maybe I'm not compassionate enough. People die everyday, but society only dies once. I don't want to go back to the Stone Age or live in a world that resembles a Bladerunner movie. I don't particularly want to die either. This is the Sophie's choice we are facing as a society.

I called a repair shop about fixing my computer and found myself wishing that my nonchalent electricians could fix computers. These computer repair guys seemed freaked out about seeing me in person and had a complex procedure that involved filling out a bunch on Internet forms and leaving the damaged computer on their front door step. They definitely didn't want me inside their store. Maybe I'll watch a few more YouTube videos and work up my nerve to fix the computer myself. How hard could it be to replace an iMac hard drive?

Today was beautiful and we decided to walk in a more remote section of the park. Dawn loved the new smells and the longer walk certainly didn't interrupt any plans. Who has plans anymore? I did have to remove the water from the roof all over again later in the day. I miscalculated yesterday and should have waited a while before removing the standing water. We ended up getting a lot more rain. At least we didn't get a tornado. You've got to be thankful for things like that.

Valli is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3320

The original Bladerunner took place in 2019. We don't have replicants or flying cars yet, but in many ways we are already living in a dystopian world. The pumps are falling apart at the place where I regularly get gas. I have to stick my credit card in the slot four or five times before it registers and activates the pump. The thing that prints your receipt is perpetually out of paper and sometimes the switch that selects premium gas doesn't work. I could go somewhere else, but this place is convenient. I've learned to adapt to the dilapidated machinery.

When I go to the grocery store, I rarely get a cart where all four wheels work. Usually at least one wheel is stuck, twirls around aimlessly, or doesn't even touch the ground. Again, I've learned to adapt to pushing a three wheeled cart around the store. Slowly but surely we are getting used to living in a world where nothing works. I don't pick up the phone anymore because it is just an automated voice trying to sell me something. When the cable TV stops working, which it does almost every day, I just turn it off, wait thirty seconds and then turn it on again. Sometimes this works, but nobody knows why. Going to the airport is a nightmare. So is driving in rush hour traffic. This isn't going to end well. Not only have we lost the ability to build a better world, we can't even cope with living in the world we've got.

I certainly don't have any answers, I can barely cope with an old house and a sick dog. Dash wouldn't poop before he went to bed last night, so I knew I wouldn't get much sleep. At around 3 AM, he had to go. He pooped on his puppy training pad, got up, pooped again in the hallway, and then about thirty minutes later, pooped a third time on a fresh puppy pad as we were trying to get back to sleep.

I've been trying to trim Dash's nails while he takes his morning nap. I can usually only trim one or two nails at a time, but he takes a lot of naps, so it's worth a try. Today I managed to trim both his dewclaws. Then I hit the quick on one of the nails on a rear paw which quickly ended today's grooming session. The all black nails are hard to trim because you don't really know where the quick is. It took a while to stop the bleeding. Amazingly, Dash never woke up during this entire process. It was a blessing that he stayed sleeping, because otherwise there would have been blood all over the house.

I think we may have found something that will work to protect the bed at night. It is a rubberized canvas mat that we used to use when we took the dogs in the car. I originally thought that this would be too heavy and awkward on the bed, but it seems to stay in place. Our motto these days is "whatever works."

I read an article today that said gum disease can contribute to the development of Alzheimer's Disease. Maybe this is what is happening with Dash. He does have gum disease and his cognitive abilities have certainly declined. It's really a shame that you can't effectively clean a dog's teeth without anesthesia. We brush his teeth and use an oral rinse to keep his mouth clean, but it is an uphill battle. I wish the vet had cleaned his teeth one more time before everybody decided that Dash wasn't a candidate for anesthesia anymore. They don't think he would wake up if he was anesthetized again. I feel bad that we can't do a better job of keeping Dash's teeth and gums healthy, but we're doing the best we can.

Tomorrow it's time for the gym again. I'd really rather just sleep, but something tells me that in a dystopian world you've got to keep moving.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day