Day 4743

It's definitely Winter. It's cold. It's damp. I want to sleep with an extra blanket on the bed. Winter is not my favorite season, but luckily it's not as bad here as it is further north. The problem with Winter is that I continue to do exactly the same things I do in the summer even though the experience is not as pleasant.

I dressed warmly for our early walk with Dawn. Actually I dressed a little too warmly, but I didn't want to take chances. As temperatures drop, there are fewer people on the trails. We're dedicated though. If it's not raining, we'll be out walking.

I waited a while before taking my long walk today because I was hoping that it would either warm up or the wind would die down. Neither happened but I went walking anyway. I must really hate driving because in many ways it would be so much easier to go to the gym on days like this. Sadly, the weather was nice today compared to what it is going to be like later in the week. Single digit temperatures are still in the forecast.

I found a really nice sweater under a pile of clothes when I was getting dressed for my walk. Where did this come from? I must have had the sweater for years. It looked like it had never been worn. I wonder what else I have. I accumulated a lot of clothes during the time I traded design services for clothing and shoes. Looking back, this was a pretty good deal. The money I made during the early years of my company disappeared a long time ago. I still have a lot of the clothes though.

I didn't see the eagles today on my walk. I wonder where they go when they aren't near their nest? I cover a lot of ground in the park and you'd think I'd see them somewhere. They're either near the nest or gone completely. People speculate that since the pair returned this year to build a second nest that they might have made the lake their permanent home. I don't think anyone really knows however. I hope they didn't scare the pelicans away. I think I enjoyed watching the pelicans more than the eagles. 

Since the ground has dried out and bulky trash pickup is later this week, it was a good day to start raking leaves. Since we have large Oak trees in our back yard, there are a ton of leaves on the ground every fall. I'm not a fan of raking and bagging leaves, but it needs to be done. When we first moved here I just let the leaves blow away during the Winter. It worked pretty well until all the neighbors built tall privacy fences. Now we don't get the same kind of breeze we used to get and the leaves just stay on the ground. 

I bagged a lot of leaves this afternoon and took them out to the curb. There are still a lot of leaves on one of the Oak trees, but it's a start. Maybe I'll rake a little more tomorrow. The leaves are dry now and it is supposed to rain later in the week. For a while, Janet and I were both out working on the leaves and Dawn got excited, thinking that we were out there to play with her. She had great fun racing through the big piles of leaves. It was nice to see her enjoying herself. Dawn is not usually a very playful dog.

I made an appointment to get a haircut later in the week. I have an appointment to see the eye doctor the same day. Doing two different things in one day is rare for me. I think I'll manage though. I'll probably find time to take a walk as well.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4490

It was hard to get up this morning. I'm still feeling tired from my trip. You can't keep a dog waiting though. I dragged myself out of bed and off we went on our morning walk. It was a nice morning, but really windy. I think the wind blew in more pollen because both Janet and I had allergy problems this morning.

We always have a big breakfast on Sunday morning and then after doing a few chores around the house, we left again for Dawn's Sunday outing. We took my car this time because Janet's car was in the shop for a recall repair. She had a loaner car, but they don't allow pets in rentals and loaners anymore. The way Dalmatians shed you could never convince anyone that a dog had not been in the car. Dawn is always nervous about new things, but she did pretty well in a different car. It probably helped that Janet sat in the back with her. There was plenty of room. The seats were down and Dawn had her favorite blanket. I'm glad this worked because I may need to take Dawn and Janet to training class this week. The Audi dealer is way behind schedule and who knows when the recall repairs will be completed.

The wind was blowing harder when we started our walk but it kept things cooler. Dawn enjoyed her second walk, but we got a big surprise when we went for ice cream afterwards. The place should have been open for several hours, but evidently employees arrived late and they weren't ready to serve yet. We were told to come back in an hour. So much for ice cream this week. We definitely weren't messing with getting Dawn back in a car again today.

I worked on my article for SpaceFlight Magazine for a bit and then I took my afternoon walk. I don't even call it a long walk anymore, because I haven't been going that far lately. I'm trying to give my foot some time to recover and it seems to be helping. For the past several days I've only been walking two miles. I still had a respectable total though because of the two short one mile walks with Dawn.

The catkins are falling from our Oak trees again. These small cylindrical flower clusters form every spring just as the tree's leaves start to turn green. They make a huge mess. I have to sweep the porch every day because it is completely covered with catkins. If it's a windy day they blow inside when you open the front door. The catkins can completely clog the pumps on the roof as well, so I'm hoping that all the wind we've been having lately is blowing the mess off the roof. I'd much rather have this stuff on the front porch than the roof. I really don't want to climb up there again to unclog the pumps. It's just getting too hard.

With all my aches and pains I'm really having second thoughts about taking a long road trip again. I don't know if I have another road trip in me. Especially all the way out to West Texas. Maybe a few trips to Kennedy Space Center each year is all the traveling I need. The way prices have gone up, I don't know if I could afford much more anyway. At any rate, I'll need to decide soon because the Dark Sky Festival is at the end of the month. This might not even be an issue because I don't even have a place to stay yet. Nobody has bothered to reply to my enquiry about reservations at the Astronomer's Lodge.

It's weird how much can change in a year. Janet sees an apocalyptic future. I won't go quite that far, but things do look pretty dismal. Workers aren't showing up to make ice cream. Restaurants don't have bread to make french toast. Prices for absolutely everything have gone through the roof. I'm glad I grew up and spent most of my working years in much better times.

Apollo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day