Day 4090

Was today some sort of a holiday? I couldn't believe all the traffic on the roads this morning. The stores were crowded. There was even a line at the gas station. I still can't figure out why today was so different. Even the park was crowded this afternoon. Crowded stores often mean empty shelves and I had to go to three different grocery stores and three different drug stores to find everything on my list. Is this what happens during Spring Break? And why is Spring Break even a thing this year? Haven't most of the schools been closed? 

I managed to get everything done despite the unusual crowds. A few delays rarely have any impact on me at all. It's not like I'm exactly busy. When I got the groceries put away, the only thing on the agenda was my daily long walk. It was a nice day for walking. I wore a light jacket that I can take off and tie around my waist when I get hot. The jacket goes on when I'm walking along the shoreline and the wind is blowing. The jacket comes off when I'm away from the water and the sun is shining. Usually the trees are starting to bud around this time of year, but our freezing weather a few weeks ago changed all that. I don't see any signs of growth yet. The Live Oak trees in the neighborhood have lost all their leaves. All the Asian Jasmine in our yard looks dead and probably needs to be cut back. I hope everything starts to grow soon. We have enough dead stuff in our yard already.

At the suggestion of a friend, I'm going to try Flonase for my allergies. This stuff seems like a high tech version of the old nasal sprays I used to use as a kid. I had to resist the urge to spray the stuff in my nose every few hours. You are only supposed to use two squirts a day. I put one measured squirt in each nostril when I got home from the drug store and we'll do this again just before bedtime. The spray seemed to have some effect, but I wonder how much of the stuff is still in my nose. I blow my nose so frequently and often violently during allergy season that I imagine that my first dose is largely gone by now. We'll see what happens after I've been taking the spray for a few days. I hope it works.

I keep reading stories about people having terrible problems getting the Covid vaccine. Even here in Texas  a lot of people seem to be having problems. This seems so weird because Janet and I had no problems at all. It was easy to get an appointment. It was easy to find a convenient location near the house. Everything worked smoothly, just like it should. Maybe rural areas are a lot different than a major city like Dallas. That's why I don't live in a rural area. It's nice and peaceful out in the country, but when you get older you need to be surrounded by good doctors.

I think I'm making progress with Dawn. When I take a nap on the bed now, she stays with me. It wasn't that long ago that she would hop off the bed and go to her dog bed in the kitchen every time I came in the bedroom. She also waits for me to make the bed in the morning now. She waits patiently at the foot of the bed while I straighten the covers and then she hop up and reclaims her place. This is an improvement. Dawn and Janet get up earlier than me and often she would already be finished with her breakfast and back in bed by the time I woke up. It's hard to make a bed with a big dog right in the middle of it.

I'm still disappointed that The Texas Star Party has been canceled for 2021. How long is this going to go on? The world seems divided into two camps. One side want to open things up right now and the other side is still terrified that they're going to catch Covid and wants even more restrictions. At some point we're going to have to realize that Covid is going to be with us forever. No society can stay locked down forever, so lets all get vaccinated and move on.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4088

Dawn got a bath today. The fact that this was the big event of the day will tell you how exciting today was. None of our dogs have enjoyed getting a bath, but they put up with it. We abandoned bathing dogs at home years ago and always take them to one of those do it yourself dog bath places that have sprung up all over town. We all got wet. Dawn got clean. And she did very well with the other dogs at the facility.

Today was tax preparation day. I think I've got everything ready to send to the accountant, but I'm never sure. Taxes seem to get more complicated every year. My big problem this year was that I keep accidentally putting things in the wrong category in Quickbooks. It took quite a while to look for missing items and move them to the proper class files. At least I'm pretty good about entering transactions in Quickbooks now. Doing a search in a software program is a lot easier than sifting through mountains of receipts in an accordion folder. I was pleased that I actually made money writing for magazines this year. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was a start.

I never did take the Allegra-D that I bought yesterday. I guess all the dire warnings on the box scared me away. Now I've got to go find something else. I should quit reading the fine print on pill bottles. I shouldn't even watch the TV commercials. Just about every pharmaceutical product on the market warns of some sort of horrible side effect. I seldom have an adverse reaction to medication. My problem is that I often have no reaction at all. A lot of pills just don't seem to work on me. It's just as well. I hate to depend on pills and still think that staying active and eating healthy food is the best way to avoid getting sick.

It was so warm today that I not only washed the car, I cleaned the dirty wheels as well. Land Rover wheels seem to get coated with oil and dirt unusually quickly. I hate cleaning them because I have to get down on my knees and scrub all the gunk away. The older I get, the harder it is to get back up off the ground. I'm going to need a cane one of these days. I guess the effort was worth it. The car looks great now. I don't drive much, so I probably won't have to do this again for a month or so. Dawn probably hopes she won't need a bath again for another month or so as well.

I talked to my editor at SpaceFlight Magazine today. He said he'd leave it up to me what to cover next. This is good and bad. I'm not really sure what I want to do next. It will probably just depend on how hard it is to get clearance and the proper credentials. I think that Kennedy Space Center has discovered that severely restricting access makes life a lot easier. Life will probably never go back to the pre-covid days when NASA created special events for social media influencers and it was easy to get a press pass.

Last year at this time I was getting ready to spend several weeks out at McDonald Observatory. Every March they hosted a special series of Spring Break star parties that would often attract up to 500 people a night. When I became an on-site volunteer I kind of thought that I'd be going back to the observatory every March. Not this year. I have no idea when the observatory is going to open up again, but I don't think it is going to be soon. Hard to believe that it's been a full year since the Covid madness started.

I've learned a lot this year. I'm not a people person and do pretty well on my own. I've discovered that it is very hard to do anything in isolation however. Getting invited to view launches at Kennedy Space Center involves a lot of interaction with other people. So does looking through big telescopes out at the observatory. I'd like to resume these activities but I'm not sure that life will ever go back to the way it was before. I'm just sitting her like everyone else, waiting to see what happens next.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4085

Charlie and Cooper were really playful today. They had a lot more energy than we did and could have played all afternoon. Charlie is nimble and can easily catch things in midair. Cooper is kind of clumsy but still has fun chasing after things he can never seem to catch. The dogs have plenty of toys at the kennel, but are always most interested in the new toys we bring with us. Both dogs are very motivated by food and will do almost anything for a treat. We spent some extra time with them today because next Monday the kennel will be full with Spring Break visitors. 

It kind of surprised me that people are even traveling on Spring Break this year. Have schools even been open long enough to have a break? Is there even anyplace to go? So many questions. I don't think McDonald Observatory is having any special Spring Break activities this year. Traditionally, this used to be their busiest time of the year and it was always the time when they called on volunteers like me to come out and help them with tours and star parties. I won't be making the trip this year. People are getting vaccinated, but restrictions are still in place almost everywhere. I wonder how long it will be before people start filling stadiums and going to concerts again? I have a feeling that it's going to take at least another year.

Dawn is full of surprises. She decided to take a longer walk today. The new route she picked wasn't a lot longer, but it probably added at least ten minutes to her walk. It was encouraging to see her try something new. We tried a second walk when we returned from visiting the rescue Dalmatians and she picked the longer route again. Who knows. Maybe she will decide to join us on longer walks later this Spring. We're not going to force her to walk longer than she wants. Walks should be fun for a dog. She's going to enjoy walking a lot more if it is something she looks forward to. At any rate, Dawn had a good day today. So did Charlie and Cooper.

I can't say that I did that well myself. I walked seven miles today, but my foot was bothering me for much of the way. Often my foot doesn't start bothering me until I've walked quite a way. By then it's too late. I still have to walk home. Today's return journey was slow and somewhat uncomfortable, but I did get 21,000 steps.

Our nasty weather appears to be over. We should have clear skies for the rest of the week and afternoon temperatures will be in the 70's. Maybe we've got a few more winter days left, but I doubt it. It's already March. It won't be long before the trees start budding and things get green again. I certainly hope they get green anyway. A lot of plants froze in our yard during the cold spell and it is unclear if they are going to come back again. 

Tomorrow, Janet and I get our second Covid vaccinations. I don't anticipate any problems, but they do say that the second shot is harder on you than the first. In two weeks from now we should have immunity and be good to go. Where do you go though? It's really hard to plan ahead. What if there's another surge in infections? What if the places we like don't open up again? Everyone wants to get back to normal, but what is normal now? Maybe all this uncertainty has become normal.

We'll see what happens. You've kind of got to take things one day at a time. Maybe Dawn will like walking again. Maybe NASA will invite me down for the Starliner launch. Maybe my allergies will go away. One can always hope.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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