Day 3731

Today was basically a free day with no star parties or tours, so I decided to drive down to Marfa and look around. I drove south to Alpine and then West to Marfa, passing the Marfa Lights viewing center along the way. Marfa is a weird place. It's an old Texas ranch town turned into a hipster mecca, all because of Donald Judd. When this famous New York minimalist moved to town, it quickly became a destination for art aficionados around the world. I wanted to visit the old Army base that Judd acquired as his studio and gallery, but it was closed because of the coronavirus. I has to settle for wandering through the town's many small shops and galleries. They all smelled strongly of disinfectant. If this little town in the middle of nowhere is worried about the coronavirus, we're all in big trouble.

The entire loop from Fort Davis to Alpine to Marfa and back again is only 69 miles. It doesn't take long for the landscape to change from the volcanic Davis Mountains to the arid Chihuahuan desert. The landscape is majestic. If you like solitude and wide open spaces, this is where you need to be. It was nice to have a change of pace from my work duties, but I made sure I was back at the Astronomer's Lodge by dinner time. Nobody misses meals at the Astronomer's Lodge. The cook should start her own restaurant. She's from Mexico and speaks no English, but make the best Guacamole, Tacos, Enchiladas, and Fajitas I've ever had. Even the Tortillas and chips are made from scratch.

It started raining right after dinner and since the telescopes couldn't be used tonight, an astronomer I met at one of the star parties asked me if I would like to take a closer look at the huge 433 inch Hobby Eberly Telescope located at the top of Mount Fowlkes. This revolutionary telescope is the second largest in the world and doesn't use an eyepiece. Instead, it uses a sophisticated fiber optic network to send light from the mirror straight to a bank of virus spectrographs. No, this is a different kind of virus. The name is just an acronym for Visible Integral-Field Replicable Unit Spectrograph, whatever that means. This telescopes is used to look for the source of gravity waves, find planets orbiting distant stars, and to do fundamental research on black holes. Not only was I able to go inside the room where the telescope was housed, I was able to go inside the telescope itself. I don't think OSHA would approve, but it was amazing to climb through the huge structure and get so close to the enormous mirror that I could touch it. I didn't touch it of course. That's another thing that would have gotten me banned from the mountain.

Tomorrow it's back to work for the remainder of my stay. The weather is pretty bad now, but I hope we still have a few more clear star party nights. Sometimes I wonder if we'll have any more star party nights at all. We're far from the eye of the storm out here in West Texas, but news about the spread of the coronavirus keeps changing by the day. I wouldn't be surprised if the University of Texas decided to cancel the rest of the event. They're certainly canceling everything else.

I hope the event continues. I'm enjoying myself and have already had some amazing opportunities that few people who enjoy astronomy will ever experience. McDonald Observatory is a remarkable place. It is a world class research center located in the middle of nowhere. The place is completely self sufficient with it's own water and sewage system. There are enormous back up generators in case the power goes out. If there's ever a zombie apocalypse, this is the place to be.

It's going to be hard to get back on a daytime schedule. The astronomers here stay up really late and then sleep really late the next morning. Not a lot happens before noon. This is fine by me. I've always been a night owl anyway. I can see why people come here for a two week project and end up staying for twenty five years.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3172

I actually did go to a new restaurant this morning. Never been there before. This was a Mexican restaurant that catered to a Hispanic audience. All the menu items were listed in Spanish. Not a problem. Even a gringo like me knew what Huevos con Chorizo were. The food was pretty tasty but I'll probably go back to eating waffles next week. Like I've mentioned many times, I'm set in my ways.

I did so many chores today that it wasn't long before I started thinking it was Saturday again. I'm surprised at how easy it is to get the days confused now that Janet isn't working on a regular basis. It used to be that if the alarm went off at 5:30 AM, I knew it was a work day. If the alarm didn't go off and we slept in late, it was the weekend. I could always tell which day of the week it was by how many bananas were left in the fruit bowl. It's all different now. I'm going to have to become more aware of what's going on around me.

Mowing the grass was more of a chore than I'd thought it would be. I let the grass grow too high in the front yard and the mower wasn't really up to the job. I think I'm going to have to get a new 24 volt battery for the mower. By the time I finished mowing the small yard, the battery was dead. Too bad the battery wouldn't hold out for a few more months. I'd rather wait until next Spring to buy a new battery for the mower, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. The grass is going to continue to grow for quite a while. Batteries are such a nuisance. I like the idea of driving a Tesla, but I can't imagine depending on a car that ran on batteries. What could possibly go wrong?

I made the mistake of washing some of Dash's dog blankets with a batch of black t-shirts. Now I've got dog hair all over my clean clothes. I guess it doesn't matter. I always have dog hair on my dirty clothes. Why should the clean clothes be any different?

Dalmatians shed so much that you have to make an effort to control the dog hair. I vacuumed today and the entire Dyson canister was filled with dog hair. It's like this every week. Despite all the shedding, Dash always has a thick, healthy coat. It makes you wonder where all this hair actually comes from.

The friend who is selling my trains wants to lower the prices on some of the items. I told him that he's the expert and to price things accordingly. Even if I don't get what I initially expected from this collection, it's still a lot better than having a bunch of strangers fight over my stuff on a future edition of Storage Wars. I wish it was easier to unwind a lifetime of collecting. Everything will eventually find a good home with another collector, but it's going to take a while.

Dash used to walk well ahead of me on our walks. Now, I have to be right by his side so I can grab the handle on his Ruffwear harness and keep him from falling when he stumbles. Dash stumbles a lot these days, but it hasn't deterred him from walking. Our slow trips through the park are the favorite part of his day. I think one of the reasons he spends so much time smelling things is that his eyesight isn't good anymore. He is developing cataracts, but surgery is out of the question. Since Dash is no longer a candidate for anesthesia there are a lot of things we can't do anymore. I'd love to get his teeth cleaned again. Unfortunately the dental procedure requires anesthesia. Both of his vets say it is too risky.

I'm going to think it's Sunday tomorrow since I did a lot of my Saturday chores today. Oh, well. At least something got done. I'm not sure if I'm becoming forgetful or if time just doesn't matter anymore. It could be a little bit of both.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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