Day 4951

Janet returned home this evening and Dawn is beyond happy. I think a week alone with me is about her limit. For the most part she's been very good, but this morning I was worried enough about her that I almost took her to the vet. She seemed very agitated and tore up her dog bed in the kitchen. Then she tried to hide in all the wrong places, like inside closets and behind the television. I took her outside and she was panting heavily. I don't know whether she had a mild seizure or was just having a panic attack. At any rate after about fifteen minutes she was completely back to normal and there were no problems for the rest of the day. It will be nice to finally go on a walk with her again tomorrow. She has refused to take a walk all week.

The last time Janet went on vacation Dawn seemed to relax as the week wore on. This time she seemed to become a little more stressed with each passing day. She is a very fearful dog and it doesn't take much to get her shivering and shaking. I think today she might have just given up hope that Janet was ever returning and thought she might be stuck with me forever. All is well now though. I hope she remembers that these vacations don't last forever the next time Janet goes someplace. 

Once I was convinced that Dawn was fine I went to the gym. Walking around the indoor track is the only way I'm going to get my steps this summer. It's way too hot to go walking in the park. When I took Dawn out to pee this morning it was already 90 degrees. It didn't take long for the temperature to climb over 100. I didn't stay long at the gym today. I was still a little worried about Dawn and came home as soon as I finished my three miles around the indoor track. I picked up a few groceries on the way home but I'll probably have to go to the store again tomorrow. 

My call to tech support yesterday accomplished nothing. I'm still getting the spoofed e-mail spam that appears to come from me. The person I talked with yesterday sounded pretty convincing and I actually thought the problem was solved. I should have known better. These guys have never really helped me before. Why should they start now. 

I hope Janet has some ideas about how to get rid of the pile of stuff in the living room that used to reside in the utility room. I have no idea where to put these things now that we no longer have a shelf. Our closets are full and the storage warehouse is getting pretty full as well. Some of the things could be thrown away, but at least half the stuff are things we use all the time. All these problems could have been avoided if the building inspector didn't have to inspect new water heaters. The way the shelf in the utility room was attached before worked well for over fifty years. It's a shame that the rules had to change at a time when I've lost all patience with bureaucracies. Getting a new drivers license was a pain. So was getting approved for TSA Pre. I never dreamed that getting a water heater would be a hassle too.

I guess I'm just getting old and grumpy. Dawn and I should get along great because she's old and grumpy as well. Neither of us like dealing with change. All in all, I think we did pretty well this week. We're both glad Janet is back though. It takes a team to keep this house running.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4754

Janet is back and Dawn is a happy camper again. She was actually very good with me while Janet was away, but it's nice to see the tail wagging again. I think that Dawn has been in kennel mode all week. She was very obedient and did everything she needed to do, but it was clear that she wasn't happy. Now Dawn is happy again and all is well. Janet had a nice trip, but I don't think that meant much to Dawn. Dogs don't hold grudges though. As soon as Janet opened the front door, Dawn was immediately back to her normal self.

Janet's plane didn't arrive until late this afternoon, so for most of the day Dawn and I went through our familiar routine. Dawn got her last breakfast in bed for a while. She will go back to eating in the kitchen with Janet now. We never did take a walk. I was actually lucky that she would go down to the park with me every morning, but as soon as she did her business, she wanted to go straight back to the house. She didn't want me to brush her teeth either. I couldn't get anywhere near her mouth unless I had a treat in my hand. Dawn was probably just playing me the entire time because she knew she could get away with it. She is a very smart dog.

I continue to take my long walk every day. These walks are frequently boring, but it's hard to argue with their benefits. Long walks are some of the best exercise a person my age can get. It's great low impact cardio that helps to build bone density. The effort must be working because I'm in great shape for my age. Even my doctor is impressed. I wish there was an easier way to stay in shape, but few things worth doing are ever easy. To be a good writer you need to keep writing. Ditto for being a good photographer.  I don't think I'm a good web developer anymore because I don't build many websites these days. Practice makes perfect, or so they say.

The refrigerator was getting pretty empty, so I went to the grocery store this afternoon so Janet would have some food when she got home. I was surprised at how crowded the stores were. Was everybody out shopping for New Year's Eve parties, or are stores always crowded on Friday afternoon? I am totally unaware of what goes on in this town unless it is on my regular schedule. I did pick up a bottle of champagne for New Years Eve. Our celebration mostly just consists of watching the Times Square ball drop on TV and then going to sleep. We love dogs but we are definitely not party animals.

This year has gone quickly. There were a few surprises, but the year was largely uneventful. At least I didn't wind up in the hospital like I did last year. I did get to see the Artemis-1 launch and several others as well. Titusville is getting to feel like a second home now. I'd attend more launches if I could, but it's just too expensive. I kind of envy my launch photographer friends who live in the area. I'm glad that Dawn remains healthy. She did have bladder stones removed this year, but there have been no serious medical emergencies. After all the problems that Dot and Dash had when they got older, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Hopefully Janet and I will stay healthy in the year ahead. So far, so good, but I've learned not to take anything for granted. I'm looking forward to returning to Kennedy Space Center. I have no idea when my next trip will be though. It all depends on getting press credentials. Maybe I'll go back to McDonand Observatory next Spring. I still wonder about that long drive though. For now I'll just concentrate on taking a long walk every day.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4574

Life has returned to normal. At least I hope it has. Janet returned this evening and Dawn was overjoyed. I think she got back just in the nick of time because Dawn was starting to become fearful and was acting weird again. This morning when she was eating her breakfast in the bedroom, I accidently turned on the dishwasher while I was fixing my own breakfast and the noise terrified her. She stopped eating and ran and hid in a corner. I don't know why the little four note chime the dishwasher makes when it powers on is so frightning to Dawn, but it's always been that way. I need to figure out a way to turn off the sounds on the dishwasher. Life will be a little easier without these fearful beeping noises.

Last night when I was letting Dawn out to pee before we went to sleep, there was a possum at the back door. It's a good thing I saw the possum before I opened the door. I'm sure this is what Dawn has been smelling in the yard this week. She's definitely been interested in something. After I chased the possum away, the rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Since my gym wasn't open today, I was forced to take a walk in the park. I got an early start, but it was still very hot. Surprisingly, I was able to complete my entire route, but I was drenched in sweat by the time I returned home. I doubt that the gym will be open tomorrow either since it is a holiday.

After a shower and a change of clothes I cleaned up the house for Janet's return. It's weird that a little noise from the dishwasher freaks Dawn out, but she doesn't mind the vacuum cleaner at all. When I vacuumed the bedroom, she just sat on the bed and watched me. She didn't seem alarmed or upset at all. Most of our other dogs hated the vacuum cleaner. Who knows. Maybe Dawn was just happy to get her room cleaned.

Dawn was eager to eat her dinner tonight and took all her meds, so I guess the dishwasher trauma wasn't that bad. Dawn is definitely a complicated dog. Hopefully, now that Janet has returned, life will return to a more relaxed pace. Dawn totally trusts Janet and doesn't really trust me at all. We've managed to get all the important things done, but she never really did relax and become my buddy. That's OK. At least we both know how to get by when the need arrises.

I was going to get Chinese take out for dinner tonight, but the restaurant was closed. I sure wish people would update their websites. I thought about getting pizza instead, but my favorite pizza place was closed as well. I saw several other closed restaurants in my search for take-out and ended up getting something at the deli counter at a nearby grocery store. When I got home I saw an article online that a lot of restaurants in Dallas were closing for the month of July because it was the slowest month of the year and they wanted to give their employees a rest. Sounds like they just wanted to save money to me.

Tomorrow we'll take our sunrise walk again. I bet that Dawn will be eager to walk. It's been more than a week she's had her regular morning walk. Even though it's Monday, we won't be able to visit the rescue Dalmatians, since the kennel will be closed for the holiday. Since my gym is closed as well, I'll probably be walking in the hot sun again. I think Dawn and I did pretty well this week, but it's good to have Janet back.

Bob Hope is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4467

All is well that ends well. Janet is home again and Dawn is a very happy dog. Actually today was Dawn's best day this week. She was finally starting to relax a little. I could clearly see the fear and uncertainty start to recede. Who knows. If Janet's vacation had lasted a few days longer we might have started to bond. I'm glad the week is over though. It's been a tough week for both of us. Dawn had to work really hard to overcome her many fears. Her worst day was when she threw up on the bed and refused to eat her breakfast. My worst day was when I felt like I'd come down with the flu. I have no idea if I really had the flu or not, but I had a persistant cough, was running a fever, and everything ached. I feel quite a bit better now and of course Dawn is over the moon now that Janet has returned..

I was determined to get something done today. I wrote several query letters with proposals for future articles. I guess it's a good sign that I've already received one reply. There's a launch in early April that Spaceflight would like me to cover, so I've already applied with Space X for credentials. Space X is much easier to deal with than NASA, so I'm optimistic that this is going to work out. The proposal I sent to Sky & Telescope might take a while to percolate to somebody's desk. They have always been very slow to respond. At least I did something. I was getting to the point where I was becoming too discouraged to even try.

I'm not sure how long I can continue taking my daily long walks. It's not fun anymore and the foot pain keeps getting worse. Usually only the last mile is terrible, so I'm thinking of scaling back my walks to 10,000 steps a day. That's less than half of what I can do on a good day, but I haven't had a good day in a long time. Maybe I'm wrong but I think reducing my daily mileage is a lot better than just quitting.

I had to make a non-standard change on the Dalmatian Rescue website today and it took me forever to remember how to write the code. I kept wanting to revert to the old way I used to build static sites years ago. This didn't work because I need to use the new mobile friendly website code. Why have I forgotten all this? I eventually figured out what I needed to do, but it was a bit disconcerting to see how quickly skills fade away if you don't use them everyday. I guess this is why I still do a daily blog post and take pictures with my phone whenever I see something interesting. If you want to call yourself a creative person, you've got to have some skin in the game.

I hope now that life has returned to normal I can finally get some sleep. Dawn and I didn't sleep well this week. The slightest noise would wake Dawn and she would sit up in the bed and look real alert until she thought the danger had past. This would usually wake me up as well. My problem was that I was always either too hot or too cold. The temperature never seemed right and my sleep stats on Fitbit and my Apple Watch were very strange. My resting heart rate was much higher than usual and my respiration rate was all over the place. At any rate, I'm tired of feeling poorly. Maybe I just don't handle stress very well.

It's hard to believe that it's already time to go grocery shopping again. My list will probably be longer than usual this week because the refrigerator is looking pretty empty. The pot roast that Janet fixed lasted all week. I don't know whether I'll need to get gas since I didn't go anywhere this week. The car never left the driveway. Hopefully the car will start tomorrow.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3504

It's nice to have Janet back again. Nine days is a long time to to go without talking to anyone. Actually I did talk to a few people during the week. I talked to the couple who adopted Jenga. I talked to my friend who fixed the sculpture that the falling tree demolished. And I talked to the AT&T repairman. It still seemed like a pretty silent week though. Janet enjoyed her trip. I guess nine days in the Caribbean is more relaxing than nine days in Dallas.

I received the press proofs for my article in Spaceflight Magazine today. The article looked great and the editor told me that they liked my writing style and hoped that I will work with them again. He even told me that the magazine would help me get a press pass if I want to cover future launches. That was an easy question to answer. Yes I do. The magazine has already gone to press but I can't share the article until the issue is available to subscribers late next week. I'm sure you'll see it eventually. I can't resist sharing stuff like this.

I'm already thinking about what to do next. I'm wondering if an article about a 71 year old guy going to Space Camp would be interesting. It probably could be humorous as well. I'm no spring chicken. I need to check with my doctor first to see if being put in a centrifuge or a multi-axis trainer might kill me. Part of the training involves assembling things underwater using scuba gear in a neutral buoyancy tank as well. All of this is way outside my comfort zone, but if I stay in this zone indefinitely I'll never leave the house.

I actually did leave the house today. I went to Central Market to pick up the things that Janet always eats for breakfast and of course I went on my morning and evening walks. It's probably too late for sunblock, but I need to do something to save my skin. This sun is brutal. I probably should start walking much earlier, but if I don't eat breakfast early, I usually don't feel like eating at all. It's a tough choice. What I need at this point are more cloudy days.

I'm really striking out with the repair people. The tree guy told me that he'd hurt his back and wouldn't be able to cut trees again until September. The carpenter made an appointment to come over at 4:30 this afternoon, but he never showed up. True to form, it rained before the roofer showed up with the silicon coating he'd promised me. It wasn't a heavy rain this afternoon, but it would have been so much better if I'd been able to make the repairs last week.

Tomorrow we go back to our regular routines. No sandy beaches for Janet but I'll still have my smoothie.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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