Day 3909

I didn't sleep well last night. When I woke up at 4 AM, I went outside to look at the Moon and Mars. They were still close together, but would have been even closer if I hadn't gone to bed before moonrise. You don't realize that the moon is always moving until you have a point of reference. When we left on our morning walk a few hours later, I could tell that the Moon and Mars were slightly further apart than they were at 4 AM.

We walked a litle later this morning. There is still a lot of moisture on the ground from our recent rain, so we saw a lot of ground fog as the sun started to rise. Ground fog is pretty and I always try to get some pictures. The pictures never seem to do justice to these foggy mornings. Like a pretty sunrise, it's all over in a matter on minutes.

We saw a Hispanic couple looking at the fruit on the Mexican Plum trees today. We asked if they knew what these trees were and they said they were called Ciruelo. It made sense that the tree had a Spanish name. I doubt that people from Mexico would call these Mexican Plums. The couple said the fruit was edible and that many people liked the tart taste. We took a few ripe plums home with us, but we haven't tried them yet.

The weather was relatively mild today so it was a good day to go up on the roof. I removed the remaining standing water, checked both pumps, and looked for damaged areas in the silicon coating. I found two spots, each about one foot in diameter that could use some attention. Nothing is leaking yet, but I've learned to recognize when the silicon starts to deteriorate. These two areas won't make it through the Winter.

It doesn't really feel like a holiday weekend. Labor Day is usually the time when there are huge back to school sales. The fate of schools is still up in the air and a lot of stores haven't figured out how to deal with customers yet. It's all very confusing. Do you go in the store, arrange for curbside pickup, order online, or just do nothing? I'm increasingly opting for doing nothing. There's certainly no urgency to buy clothes anymore. Working from home has no dress code. When everyone starts dressing like me, I think retail is dead.

I think I'm becoming addicted to the Boca Chica live feed on YouTube. I check in almost every day to see what's going on. It looks like they're getting ready to take the SN6 rocket back to the shipyard and replace it with another test vehicle. It's weird that they just use a state highway to move the rockets. You'd think they'd build their own special track to move the rockets from the factory to the launch pad. This is clearly a work in progress. I'm sure I'll check back tomorrow to see if anything has changed.

I'm not sure if we'll be visiting the Dalmatian kennel tomorrow. We'll have to check and see if it's open on Labor Day. If we do visit, it will be the last time we see Hank and Luckie. They are both going to their forever home soon.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3893

The article I wrote last December about my visit to Michoud Assembly Facility and Stennis Space Center has finally been published in SpaceFlight Magazine. I received the press proofs this morning. The article looks nice and they even used several of my photos. I'm happy. I just have to learn to remain patient with these magazines. They all operate on their own timetable. The Sky and Telescope article about my week long stay at McDonald Observatory is currently inching it's way toward publication. If I'm lucky I'll see the article early next year.

My editor at SpaceFlight Magazine is interested in an article about the Starship facility at Boca Chica. Maybe this will provide the incentive I need to pull something together. I only know one person who works at Space X, so it may take a while to make the contacts I need to get invited down there. The visit may never happen, but what have I got to lose. This will give me something to do in the weeks ahead. I'm certainly not having much luck getting invited back to Kennedy Space Center.

We had a nice walk this morning. It's still noticeably cooler than it was last week. Dawn definitely loves the Fall weather. She had lots of energy and was even playful this morning. When we passed the Mexican Plum trees, there were two hispanic ladies who seemed very interested in the fruit. I wanted to ask them whether the plums were edible and what you do with them, but they didn't speak English. The fruit looks pretty tasty, but I'm still not sure what these things actually are. I can identify a few ducks and geese at the lake, but I'm no arborist. This stuff still might be poisonous.

There's a free shredding event at a local church tomorrow morning, but as usual I am not prepared. I really need to throw away a lot of old documents, but I hate to discard them without looking through everything. Of course, I hate looking through everything too, because it takes so much time. This is why the paper keeps stacking up. I keep thinking that I'll deal with it later. Unfortunately, later is tomorrow. Will I be bold and throw the ancient documents awasy, or just wait until the next shredding event? I guess I'll see how I feel in the morning.

Since McDonald Observatory is starting to open up again, I wrote a letter to some of my contacts out there to let them know I was still interested in volunteering. I received a quick reply thanking me for my interest and saying that they'd let me know how their plans to reopen the facility are developing. Maybe I'll be returning to the Davis Mountains before the end of the year. I spend a lot of time maintaining contacts in the space and astronomy world. I don't want to be forgotten, but I don't want to be a pest either. It's a fine line.

Since we are taking so many walks in the dark, I thought about going to REI and buying one of those LED lights you wear on your head. Janet carries a small flashlight now, but one of those headlamps might be useful. You've got to carry a light so the bicycles won't run over you. Some of the cyclists get an even earlier start than we do. I never made it out of the driveway today, but at least the thought is in my head. I can always go to the store later.

It's grocery shopping day again tomorrow. One of these days I'm finally going to find Clorox Wipes.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day