Day 4496

I got to sleep a little longer this morning. Even though we are both retired, we still maintain a vestage of our old work schedules. This means sleeping in on weekends and having breakfast together. I think Dawn would like to get started earlier on Saturday morning, but she usually doesn't move until she knows at least one of us is awake. We had a nice walk before breakfast although it was rather warm. No jackets required.

Traffic seems unusually heavy this Easter weekend. The grocery stores were certainly busy. It seemed like everybody was planning a big Easter meal. I easily found everything on my list, but had a hard time finding a parking place at some stores. The Central Market parking lot is always full, but there always seems to be one space open for me when I arrive. It's always the exact same space. I find this strange, but I'm starting to believe that this is my space. One of these days it will be taken when I arrive and I'll be mad.

Janet has a big dinner planned for tomorrow with a smoked ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole and more. To have something different tonight I picked up some Maryland Crab Cakes. We both love crab cakes. I always seems to be thinking about food and sleep. I guess I have my priorities.

It felt more like Summer than Spring on my long walk today. At least it was a cloudy day and there was a little breeze. I was comfortable in shorts and my feet still aren't hurting too bad. Someone stopped me today and asked where the eagles were. Beats me. I've heard rumors that they are still in the area but I haven't seen them in over a month. I must have been walking really slow on my way home because one of my neighbors slowed their car and asked me if I needed a ride. Nope. I'm fine. This is what I do. I walk slow.

I got out the star tracker this afternoon and installed the latest software. I still have a hard time getting this thing to work correctly. The camera sometimes goes dead in the middle of a session and I have to restart everything. I still don't know if the connecting cables are bad or if my camera is not completely compatible with the tracker. At any rate, I doubt that I'll take it to the observatory with me. It's just too much trouble.

I should have mowed the grass this afternoon instead of monkeying around with the tracker. Maybe I'll mow tomorrow. If I wait too much longer, the grass will be too high. The only good thing about mowing is that it still counts as steps. If I mow, I don't have to walk as far. I still think it would be better to get someone to do this for me, but I hate dealing with strangers. I'll probably just keep mowing.

We'll still take Dawn on her Sunday outing tomorrow, although I doubt that the ice cream place will be open. I always have to watch the dogs carefully around Easter when we go to the parks. There are a lot of Easter egg hunts on Easter morning and kids don't seem to look for real eggs anymore. People hide plastic eggs filled with candy. The park is usually littered with candy on Monday morning. Dogs should never eat chocolate, but that doesn't keep them from trying. Dawn has a good sense of smell too. If there's loose food, she'll find it.

I hope everyone has a happy Easter. I haven't forgotten the true meaning of the day. I just don't talk about it.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4117

Dawn surprised us today. At the corner where she normally turns right and begins to head back home, she turned left instead. She seemed happy and eager to follow a new path today. We still didn't walk all that far, but it was encouraging to see her try something new. While Janet was out earlier in the day I sat outside with her for about 15 minutes. She was very relaxed and came over and sat with me several times. We're still having problems in the kitchen though. Dawn seems to have some very bad memories associated with feeding and food. That's really a shame, because she loves to eat. Building trust with this dog is going to take a very long time.

I had to go to the bank today and I'm beginning to wonder if they are ever going to reopen the lobby. I've been making transactions using the drive through window for over a year now. I think a lot of businesses have discovered that it's a lot easier to operate in lockdown mode. The bank certainly doesn't have to hire as many people these days. Everything still seems to work, so why would they bother to reopen?

I'm beginning to think I bought the wrong camera. This new camera is a kind of heavy and my old camera seems to work a lot better with the star tracker. The new camera has some amazing features but since most astrophotography is done in full manual mode, I don't even need them. What I really need is a very light camera with a good sensor and long battery life. I still don't have anything that will make my life easier. Most deep sky processing software requires a PC to run. I use a Mac. Canon and Nikon cameras are popular with astrophotographers. I use Panasonic and Olympus cameras. I probably should have just gone on eBay and bought a used Canon DLSR and a cheap PC that would run the software I need. Why don't these guys use a Mac? I've always hated using a PC.

We needed to renew a prescription for Dawn today and discovered that our vet no longer worked at the clinic. Do we move with the vet or stay with the clinic? One more thing to be frustrated about. People in the veterinary business seem to move around like musical chairs. There is a huge turnover. My business used to do a lot of work with veterinarians and not a single one of these old clients is working at the same place anymore. I used to move around a lot when I worked at the ad agencies, but I expected the rest of the world to remain stable. Now, nothing is stable. The whole world reinvents itself every week.

When I went out to the street this morning to retrieve my garbage can, a new neighbor who just moved in crossed the street to introduce himself. When he shook my hand it startled me. I hadn't shaken anyone's hand in over a year. The guy was new in town and was just trying to be friendly. Nevertheless, I washed my hands as soon as I returned to the house. Is it always going to be this way? Maybe. I'm suspicious of everyone now and have no desire to make new friends. Covid changed everything.

It's Easter weekend and the park will be filled with little kids having egg hunts. Not many people use real eggs anymore. They fill plastic eggs with candy instead. The kids leave candy and unfound eggs all over the park. It's a mess. We'll see if Dawn has a nose for candy like Dot and Dash did. I always had to watch Dot and Dash like a hawk in the weeks following Easter because they were always trying to eat the candy.

Miracle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day