Day 4114

The arboretum got hit pretty hard during the big freeze. I don't know why I thought this place would be exempt from all the carnage, but mother nature definitely had the upper hand here as well. As Janet and I walked through the gardens we kept saying "look, their's died too." Strangely, I felt a little better about our own pitiful yard after seeing that even dozens of skilled gardeners couldn't save these plants.

Even though almost all the Azaleas and Rhododendrons died, the Spring celebration was still pretty spectacular. Thousands of seasonal flowers made the well manicured gardens seem even more colorful than usual. Janet and I always get lots of ideas for our own yard when we visit the arboretum. Somehow we never follow up on these ideas though. When you have large dogs and thousands of squirrels in your yard, it's easy to lose interest in gardening. Usually we never get beyond cleaning up all the dog poop.

I didn't bother to take a long walk today. After stopping for a beer and a cup of tortilla soup at a patio restaurant inside the arboretum, a stroll through the gardens seemed like all the exercise I needed. Maybe it was good to take a break. My foot didn't hurt at all today. It's too bad you can't take dogs to the arboretum. Dawn would have enjoyed this afternoon's outing.

While I was eating breakfast this morning, one of the TV stations I was watching showed a supposedly live broadcast of the latest Starship launch at Boca Chica. Something seemed vaguely familiar about this launch, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Later in the day I realized that the broadcast I was watching wasn't live at all. It was footage from several weeks ago with a "live" caption pasted over the top. The real launch today was much different. It was very foggy outside and the rocket blew up in midair. This makes four Starships in a row that have blown up. I have a feeling that the first person to ride in one of these things is going to be pretty nervous.

Although I didn't take my long walk today, Dawn did get her shorter walk. She always seems eager to take these walks, but some days we don't get very far. Today was a good day. We completed our short one mile loop with no strange behavior at all. Some days Dawn walks like a normal dog. Other days, she freezes in place for no apparent reason. We still can't figure out her many moods. She certainly doesn't seem sick. Every time we take her to the vet, everything checks out fine.

I thought about taking a good camera to the arboretum, but I'm glad I didn't. I find that a lot of experiences are more enjoyable without a camera. I always have my phone in my pocket, but that's a lot different than lugging heavy professional equipment around. I find that I remember things better if I just take the experience in with my eyes instead of constantly trying to compose a scene for the camera. Oddly, I still haven't used my new camera. Maybe I should have just got a better phone.

Today seemed like Sunday for some reason. I hope that won't make tomorrow feel like Monday. One Monday in any week is plenty. I have no idea what I'll be doing tomorrow. I"m still trying to avoid climbing up on the roof. Maybe if I wait long enough, the water will just evaporate.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4109

I think one of the worst habits I ever acquired was meticulously recording every transaction I make in Quickbooks. I have a category for everything and even divide grocery shopping into numerous sub-categories. It takes an enormous amount of time to enter everything correctly and I'm getting tired of it. I really should have just made two categories: stuff I really need and stuff I don't really need. Today I entered three months worth of receipts and am finally caught up for 2021. My accountant tells me that I've made Quickbooks Pro ridiculously overcomplicated and he doesn't even look at most of the entries. Old habits are hard to break though, and just like my daily blog entries, I continue to categorize everything.

Nesting season has arrived and I'm seeing pairs of duck in places where they never usually go. They leave the lake at this time of year and you see them in fields and meadows throughout the park. I even see pairs of ducks in people's yards. You'd think the ducks would be more careful about where they choose to nest. The coyotes get a lot of the eggs and sometimes the ducks as well. It won't be long before we start seeing baby ducks though, and some of them always survive.

They say that if you spend an hour a day studying something, you will become an expert within three years. I try to spend a little time each day learning more about astrophotography. Today, while I was doing my Google searches I stumbled across a very desirable star tracker that was actually in stock and ready to ship. Anything related to astronomy has been almost impossible to find since the pandemic started. I guess people have more time on their hands and interest in the hobby has exploded. A lot of things are on back-order for months now. When I saw the iOptron tracker, I felt it was a sign and that I needed to act quickly. The tracker is on order and I should be able to take it with me when I go out to McDonald Observatory in May. I'll never be able to use this thing in Dallas, but when people start doing things in person again, I may join a local astronomy club that owns a nice dark sky site in southern Oklahoma. On the other hand, the tracker may end up in the storage warehouse with a lot of other passing fancies.

Janet and I made reservations to see Dallas Blooms at the arboretum next week. We always mean to go to this event but for some reason something always comes up and we end up being too busy. They say this event is one of the 14 best places to see spring flowers in the world. I don't know where the other 13 places are, but we really enjoyed going to the arboretum around Christmas and we've heard that Dallas Blooms is spectacular. There are 500,000 tulips for starters, along with 100's of varieties of flowering plants and trees. Hopefully, it won't rain.

We must have gotten some rain last night, because the yard was wet in the morning. We totally avoided the severe weather though. There was bad weather to the North and to the South of us, but all we got was a little rain. I didn't even hear any thunder last night. The only thing that woke me up was the sound of Dawn snoring.

Dawn continued to walk well today. She's been doing well on her daily walks all week. I did pretty well today too. I kept up a decent pace for five miles and didn't have a lot of foot pain. I still have no idea why the foot pain varies so much from day to day. I'm very consistent about the way I walk. You'd think the way my foot feels would be consistent as well. It's a mystery. I"m just glad there are good days as well as bad days.

The trash has been taken to the curb, the refrigerator is almost empty, and I feel like the week is just about over. I don't know why my week always starts on Friday, but it's been that way for a long, long time. Hey, when you don't work in an office, you make your own rules.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day