Day 4336

I've been waiting for this day. It's daylight when we walk Dawn in the morning again. I've never really understood the time change anyway. Noon should always be when the sun is at it's highest point in the sky and we should just adjust our schedules accordingly as the days get longer and shorter. I don't think that Dawn would agree with this philosophy though. She seemed very indignant that I didn't fix her dinner at 4 PM today. Personally, I don't mind it it's dark when we eat dinner. I've usually finished all my outdoor activities by early afternoon.

It would have been another 20,000 step day if I had remembered to wear my Fitbit this morning. I always do a lot of walking on Sunday. Dawn enjoyed her sunrise walk and still had plenty of energy when we took her on her Sunday outing around noon. In between, I took my regular long walk in the park and added another five miles to my total. While I was out, I encountered some sort of marathon race. There were lots of people running, but none of them were going very fast. I must have encountered the stragglers at the end of the race. The winners had probably already finished before I entered the park. I suppose that running is excellent exercise, but all I saw today were a bunch of future knee replacements.

Since it was such a nice day today, I decided to mow the grass. At this time of year I always hope that this is the last time I have to mow and that I can put the mower away for another year. It seldom works out that way. If we get a lot of rain and there isn't a freeze, the grass just keeps growing. I'm going to remain hopeful though. Maybe I won't have to mow again until next Spring.

There seems to be virtually no Fall color this year. The trees seem to be going directly from green to brown. In previous years there would be a lot of reds and yellows in the park by now. Every once in a while we have a spectacular Fall. This year is kind of blah. I wonder why? It seems like the warm days and cool, crisp nights we've been having lately would be perfect for vibrant Fall colors.

The proton pump inhibitor I've started taking seems to be working. Last night's chili didn't give me heartburn. I haven't had acid reflux for several days now. I still have misgivings about taking a PPI though. Stomach acids are actually essential for digesting food and preventing bacteria from developing. You just don't want the acid escaping into your esophagus. We'll see how long my doctor wants me to continue this medication. If the answer is forever, we may have problems.

My watch winders are all starting to die. I guess they are getting pretty old. I keep thinking that a watch winder should last forever. It's just a simple motor that rotates the watch for a while combined with a circuit that turns the motor off for about 17 hours to let the watch unwind. I've never had a watch winder that lasted ten years. Some haven't even lasted five. I guess this shouldn't even matter since I seldom wear a mechanical watch anymore. The Apple Watch has replaced all the watches I used to wear. Watch collecting just seems like a strange hobby now. How did I ever get interested in the first place? 

At least I'm still interested in dogs and rockets. I'm interested in astronomy when I'm out in West Texas. Here in Dallas the light pollution is so bad that it's hardly worth the effort to look up at the sky. Most of my interests wind up in the storage warehouse eventually. Am I fickle, or is this just the way it works? The storage warehouse has become a museum of things I am no longer interested in.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4335

I was surprised at how much prices had gone up when I went grocery shopping this morning. Janet had warned me that things would be more expensive, but this was fairly spectacular. A two pound tub of strawberries was over $10. Granted, these were the more expensive organic strawberries, but I've bought these things for $2.50 before. Gas has been creeping up in price as well. I've noticed that lines are starting to form at places where gas is the cheapest. I wonder where this will end? It's certainly not very encouraging.

As least my car starts easily now. Hopefully with a new battery and a recently completed scheduled maintenance, I will be good to go for another year. I don't drive much anymore so it doesn't seem fair to have car problems. I need to save my money and my energy for the house problems that are going to need attention soon.

We had no problems with loose dogs this morning, but Dawn wasn't interested in a long walk. It was a nice day and we tried to get her to try a new route, but she let us know that she preferred her short one mille loop.  We saw another Dalmatian on our walk this morning. It's rare to see a Dalmatian in the neighborhood these days. The owner lived on the other side of the lake, so she was either taking a very long walk or had driven her dog over here for a change of scenery. 

I probably need a change of scenery on my own long walk. My route has become so familiar now that I've practically memorized every step along the way. There are other routes I could take, but on most days it just doesn't matter. I'm not sightseeing when I take these walks. I'm just trying to stay active and get some exercise.

We'll see how good the new PPI I started taking is at controlling heartburn. We had chili for dinner tonight. Chili, spaghetti, pizza, and several other of my favorite meals have been pretty much off limits for the past year or so. Chili was generally number one on the heartburn register, so I'm a bit skeptical about whether a little green pill can change all that. It's worth a try though. If I still have heartburn tonight, it certainly won't be the first time.

My new editor at SpaceFlight must work all the time. I get messages from him on the weekends now. This never used to happen with the old editor, who was more my age. I guess there's a changing of the guard at the magazine. I miss the old familiar faces in my life. One by one they are all starting to disappear. My advertising friends are just birthdays to remember on Facebook now. Even some of the people I've met out at the observatory are starting to retire. I'm not terribly worried about being replaced by a younger writer at the magazine though. Writing is becoming a lost art. All the younger folks want to do podcasts and videos.

Where did this week go? It's almost time for Dawn's Sunday outing again. It's should be a nice day with a lot of walking. It's too bad my feet still hurt. Even with bad feet, I still prefer walking to lifting weights though. Walking is the perfect activity for daydreaming.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day