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

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Day 4019 - Christmas

It turns out it wasn't Dawn, it was us. We tried an experiment this morning. Instead of having Dawn follow us on a walk, we followed her. She led us over the hills and through the woods on a wild walk to parts of the park we had never even visited before. Luckily, it was a beautiful, dry winter day with no poison ivy, no bugs, and most importantly, no snakes. Dawn had a great time. She was happy, energetic, and didn't freeze in place at all. We ended up walking over five miles and probably could have walked longer. If there is a lesson in all this, it might be that Dawn thinks we are boring people and wishes we would do more interesting things with her.

Dawn's triumphant Christmas walk was the beginning of a very pleasant day. The house was filled with the smells of delicious things in the oven. Janet talked with her family on the phone while I finally figured out how to use my new camera. I've barely scratched the surface of what the camera can do, but I did take some pictures and was pleased with the results. I figured out how to install and pair the phone app that lets me operate the camera remotely and I tried out a couple of lenses that I already own. This camera is going to be very good for astrophotography and future Dalmatian Rescue photo shoots.

Even Facebook was better today. Instead of people arguing about politics, there were just lots of happy pictures of dogs dressed up in Christmas outfits. It's too bad we can't act like it's Christmas all year long. For one day a year, humanity doesn't seem so bad after all.

I took another walk later in the day and some of the larger paved trails were filled with children playing with their Christmas toys. The gifts kids get now are much larger and more expensive than what I used to find under the tree. Janet and I were talking recently about how happy we were to get a ViewMaster for Christmas when we were little. Everything runs on batteries now and will probably break fairly quickly. I saw a parade of children riding on fancy motorized toy cars and scooters. There were motorized skateboards as well. A lot of the older kids on motorized scooters were going way too fast. Luckily, I didn't encounter any serious accidents today. It would have spoiled my Christmas mood.

Our Christmas dinner was delicious. Janet baked a Crown Roast surrounded by root vegetables, all covered by a fabulous spicy glaze. When it came out of the oven it looked like something you'd see in a food magazine. Our side dishes were candied sweet potatoes, Italian sausage dressing, fresh cranberry sauce, and a Brussels Sprout salad. We made Mimosas, got out our best champagne glasses and ate way too much.

Dawn got her first taste of Devon's Doggie Delights for Christmas and she loves the Cheese Chompers. I forget when we first discovered Devon's treats, but Dot and Dash loved them. I'm really happy that Dawn had a good day. It was so nice to see her acting normally again. We'll see how long this lasts. Realistically, it will be impossible to let her drag us through the woods every day. The park isn't that big either. There are only so many undiscovered routes left. Maybe we just have a very stubborn dog instead of a dog with mental problems. We forget sometimes that Dawn is a mama dog who has raised many, many puppies. I think this might explain a lot of her behavior.

A very Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope your day was as nice as ours was. For a short moment in time, I'm feeling fairly optimistic.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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