Day 3441 - Memorial Day

It was a quiet day. I'm getting plenty of sleep now, but I still wake up feeling tired. I still have vivid dreams of being lost. Maybe these dreams are wearing me out. Sometimes I'm with friends and sometimes I'm alone, but I always seem to be in the wrong room or the wrong building. These aren't scary dreams, but a lot of walking is involved. I always wake up before I get where I'm going.

The weather is warmer than it should be for this time of year, but at least there's a breeze in the morning. I had my morning smoothie while watching a marathon presentation of Jay Leno's Garage. Anything is better than the news these days. Jan Leno's Garage isn't nearly as good as the old version of Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, but what are you going to do.  Political correctness has basically ruined television.

I'm still trying to find the perfect shoe and sock combination for my daily walks. It's odd that this never seemed to be a problem when I was walking with dogs. The dogs probably stopped so frequently to smell things that my feet never got hot or became swollen. I'd probably be more comfortable wearing light weight running shoes, but I like firm ankle support. Boots are better if you accidentally step on a snake too.

Since today was the last day for REI's big annual sale, I made one last trip to the store to look for a solution. There were great prices on everything, but I came home with nothing again. I looked at boots, wool socks, solar powered gadgets and everything else with a 25% off sign, but I seem to have totally lost my interest in buying things. This is a new experience for me. Buying things used to always put me in a good mood.

Driving to Florida is starting to seem like a better option than flying. The launch date for the Falcon Heavy is almost certain to change several times and changing airline reservations at the last minute is proving to be more of a hassle than it should be. The price for a flexible, refundable ticket is more than double what a plan-ahead discount fare would be. There are no nonstop flights where I'm going either. The downside to a long drive is that I would need to get new tires. My current tires are a little worn for a long trip. We'll see. I probably shouldn't overthink this until a get a better idea when the launch is actually going to take place.

I discovered that I can stream the PBS Breakthrough series for free on my computer. I watched the show about The Rocket this afternoon. This type of stuff is interesting to me. I've watched countless launches on TV, but I still didn't know how rockets actually work. I'll have to watch the episodes about The Car, and The Robot later. It's amazing how many things we take for granted today were developed during wartime. Even the telescope was initially developed as a tool for sailors to observe opposing ships at a distance. We definitely wouldn't have gotten to the moon without World War II and the Cold War with the Soviet Union that followed.

I saw a Dalmatian on my evening walk today. It's a surprising how rare they are in this part of town. I had a brief conversation with the owner which gave me a chance to give the dog a pat on the head. This beautiful five year old female appeared to have a very good home. As the guy and his dog continued on their way I kept thinking how strange it was to not be holding a leash in my hand.

Libby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3440

While I was walking today I passed a tent where one of my favorite smokehouses was giving away free barbecue. I was initially dumbfounded. Was this place where I've spent a lot of money over the years buying smoked hams for Easter actually giving its pricy meat away for free? A lady serving must have noticed my expression because she looked at me and said "Come over here and grab a plate." She proceeded to pile the plate with potato salad and smoked brisket. I wasn't going to complain. I took my plate and sat under a nearby tree, watching a Great Egret hunt for food while I ate my impromptu meal. Egrets stick their long necks forward while hunting and then with a lightning fast move strike to snatch their prey. I don't know what the Egret was eating today, but I think my meal was much better.

The park seemed unusually festive for a holiday weekend honoring fallen soldiers. As I was eating my free barbecue I could hear a mariachi band playing in the distance. The lake was dotted with bright orange rental kayaks and it looked like a sailboat race was about to get underway. I passed several very large family gatherings complete with a bounce house for the kids. There were bicycles, skateboards, and inline skates everywhere. There were also lots of flags. I guess everybody has their own way of celebrating the Memorial Day weekend. I'm not sure everything I saw today was appropriate, but I do think good barbecue is appropriate for any situation.

I got my 20,000 steps today but it seemed like more of an effort than usual. It was probably the heat. Walking is a lot more enjoyable when it is 60 degrees than when it is 90 degrees. I'm going to have to start wearing a hat when I go outside. My hair is getting thinner and I'm already getting sunburned on the top of my head.

I guess I could stay inside and walk around and around on the indoor track at the gym. A lot of people seem to do this. I like watching the animals and identifying flowers though. Outdoors is better. Maybe I'll spend more time at the gym in July. All the animals are in hiding by then and the meadows are dry and brown. About the only thing you see in the park in the middle of summer are dragonflies.

While I was resting between walks I watched a mini-marathon of a show called Breakthrough: the ideas that changed the world on PBS. It was interesting to learn how everyday objects like cars, smartphones, and telescopes changed the world forever. The backstories behind the development of these iconic objects was fascinating. I took a special interest in the episode about telescopes. Even the early Egyptians knew that glass could magnify things. As early as the Middle Ages, monks wore crude eyeglasses to help them illuminate manuscripts. It took another century or so before someone held some concave and convex lenses in front of each other and discovered that they could make distant objects larger. When Galileo used one of these simple early telescopes to discover that Venus had phases like the moon and that Jupiter had moons of its own, he concluded that the planets all orbited around the sun, which got him in big trouble with the pope. He was found guilty of heresy and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Somehow this rocky start to modern astronomy still let to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Ultra-Deep Field photographs that showed the universe to be much larger and more complex than anyone had expected. I'll have to watch the rest of this series. It's pretty amazing how we got to where we are today.

Another stranger in the park today stopped me to ask about Dash. I'd never noticed this guy before. He and his wife were on bicycles and they told me that it was strange to see me walking alone. Apparently they'd been watching me walk Dot and Dash for many years. They said their own dog had died of cancer five years ago and they still hadn't gotten over it. I told them I understood completely.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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