Day 4928

Last night's rain cooled things down a little this morning, but the temporary respite from our ongoing heat wave didn't last long. By mid-morning it was already hot and muggy again. At least Dawn got a nice early walk this morning. It's a shame that it's too hot for her to walk in the afternoon, but at least she gets a little activity.

With a forecast that includes triple digit temperatures for the next ten days, I don't think I'm going to be walking in the park for a while. I ate my weekday breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit and then headed for the gym to attempt to renew my membership. It turned out the the whole membership issue was no big deal. They told me that they just need to confirm that all my information was correct once a year. I'm still a member in good standing.

I only accomplished two things today, I walked three miles on the indoor track and I shot some baskets on the basketball court. I'm really glad I didn't have to change gyms. My favorite things about this gym are the basketball court and the nice indoor track. For some reason I like using the indoor track a lot more than using a treadmill. The basketball court is just for fun. I'm not very good, but I enjoy shooting baskets.

The Internet is definitely not fun anymore. Navigating websites has become a password hell, now that everyone is demanding unique and complex passwords that are impossible to remember. Gone are the days on innocence where I used to use the same password for everything. I'm beginning to think my Luddite sister is right. Who needs this? I had to call my hosting company today and ask if they could get rid of the person or people who are spoofing or cloning my e-mail address. At least once a week I find mail in my spam folder that appears to come from me. I'm sure other people get this spam as well. The tech support guy said he'd increase the spam protection on my account so I would no longer see these messages. "You're missing the point," I said. "I don't care if I see them. I don't want the rest of the world getting spam that appears to come from me." We'll see if the hosting company can do anything. My hopes aren't very high at this point.

I got my known traveler number from TSA today. Wow. That was quick. I thought I'd be getting a physical card to keep in my wallet, but that's apparently not the way it works. You add your known traveler number to your profile on the various airline sites you use and then when you book a flight it shows up on your boarding pass that you are TSA Pre approved. I guess we'll see how this works the next time I travel. If it works this will save me a ton of time at the Orlando airport.

Janet has a vacation planned and I'm practically begging Dawn to bond with me before she leaves. The last time Janet went on vacation Dawn was a mess. She wouldn't even come out in the kitchen to eat her breakfast. I had to feed her breakfast in bed. Eventually I got her used to going down to the park with me to do her business, but she never would take a walk with me. As soon as she pooped, she headed straight back to the house. Life would be much less stressful for Dawn if she understood that I really liked her and would never harm her. This may never happen though. Dawn spent too many year being used as a breeding dog by two guys who weren't nice at all.

It looks like tomorrow will be another day just like today. The temperature is going to keep getting a little hotter every day for the next ten days. I really hope we don't have a power outage or air conditioner problems. Next month's electric bill is going to be sky high, but that's the price you pay for living in Texas in the summer.

Kirby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4849

Another slow day. A few things got done, but not very much. I had a telephone meeting with my financial advisor this afternoon. These meetings used to happen more frequently, but I don't have much to say anymore. The market goes up and the market goes down. You really can't outsmart it indefinitely. I basically just wished the guy luck. I certainly don't think I could make better financial decisions on my own.

I got a message from my accountant that he'd finished doing my taxes and they've been filed. I think I lead a simple life, but my tax return always looks complicated to me. At least taxes are done for another year. Now the only thing on my to-do list is renewing my driver's license. It's kind of depressing that I'm not making money anymore, but I had some good years. Things could be a lot worse. I need to remember that I'm not in debt or losing a lot.

The weather continues to baffle me. I was surprised at how cold it was this morning since the temperature was over 90 degrees yesterday. It warmed up later, but I had to wear a jacket on our early walk with Dawn. The day was kind of dismal. It looked like it was going to rain all day, although it never did. There is more rain in the forecast late tonight. Luckily there are no severe weather warnings.

I tried again to find out whether I've been credentialed to cover the upcoming Viasat 3 Americas launch. No luck so far. The friends I wrote in Florida haven't heard anything yet either. I guess I'm just going to have to live with last minute notices and higher airfares. I did receive a notice from the National Reconnaissance Office asking me if I'd like to attend a pre-launch Media Day for the NROL-68 mission. Sure. I'd like to go to all these things. It's just a shame that travel is becoming so expensive.

At least walks in the park are still free. I hope these walks are doing me some good, because they are becoming boring. I could always walk somewhere else, but that would involve getting in the car and driving somewhere. It's so much easier to just head out the back door. I walk the same route every day and usually see the same ducks and geese. A lot of times I see the same people too, although I don't know who they are. I guess a lot of people like to exercise in the park.

I think Dawn is back to normal. She hasn't fallen or appeared to be in any discomfort for over a week. We're going to discontinue her remaining medication in a few days an see if that makes any difference. We're trying real hard to keep her from jumping, but that's hard to do with a Dalmatian. At least she's getting better at using her step to get on and off the bed. We all continue to take things one day at a time. Luckily, most of the days are good.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4836

What a weird Spring we've had. It's been hot, it's been cold, it's been all over the place. Today the temperature got up to 81 degrees. If that wasn't enough, the humidity was almost 100% this morning. It was so damp that all the bricks on the back porch were soaking wet. That didn't stop us though. We got up, dressed in summer clothes and took Dawn on her morning walk. Dawn is still taking shorter walks, but she seems to be doing fine.

This was another one of those days where the furnace was on when we first woke up and then the air conditioner kicked in later in the day. Eventually the heavy dew everywhere evaporated, but it was a very muggy day. A quick look at the yard confirmed that my annual Spring chores need to start soon. It's almost time to start mowing the grass again. I need to cut back the dead growth in the Asian Jasmine at the back of the yard as well. It will be time to battle the ants and wasps soon. I'll need to go and get some insecticide for ants and something stronger to kill the wasps. The wasps build their nests everywhere and they are very aggressive. I've been stung many times. I don't want Dawn to get stung by these things.

If I was a sensible person I'd start getting rid of things in the office and storage warehouse. Instead, I keeping wanting to repair things I seldom use. I'd like to repair the big production printer so I could make a few large prints of my best astrophotography. Never mind that I have no place to display the pictures. There's a big Sony TV in the storage warehouse I'd like to get fixed as well. I need to retrieve some of the equipment I still have on consignment at a local music store. If it hasn't sold in two years, it will probably never sell. Where will I put this stuff? The storage warehouse of course.

That's all for another day. Today I just followed my familiar routine. I ate breakfast, checked my messages which were mostly just spam, and then got ready to take my long walk. It was so warm today that I just wore shorts and a t-shirt. Wasn't it just a few days ago that I was decked out in all my winter gear? I can't keep up with this constantly changing weather at all.

I left Dawn alone in the house while I took my walk. As I expected, she didn't move an inch. She was asleep on the bed when I left and still asleep when I returned. She wasn't at all interested in getting up until Janet returned from the gym. Dawn gets excited when Janet comes home but hardly even looks up when I enter the house. She's fine though. As soon as Janet returned, Dawn's tail was wagging and she was ready for lunch.

I vacuumed the carpets this afternoon. The carpets in the bedroom and office need to be replaced, but that will come later after the new roof is installed and the damaged sheetrock in the ceiling has been replaced. For now I just continue to vacuum the old worn out carpet and am still amazed at how much dirt is collected. The carpets don't look any better when I'm finished, but the Dyson canister is filled with dirt and dog hair.

Tomorrow is going to be another unseasonably hot day and Friday it's going to start raining again.  Probably as soon as this weird Spring is over I'll be complaining about the hot Texas summers again. This is supposed to be our nice season, but I think we got cheated this year. 

Brooke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4773

We moved the rescue Dalmatians to their new kennel this morning. The dogs have been in limbo at a temporary facility for several months while the rescue group looked for a replacement for Waggin Tails, which unfortunately shut down. The new place is very nice and we hope the dogs will be happy there until they find their forever homes.

We picked up the dogs at the rescue group's veterinary clinic, where they all had just received a bath. Landry, our newest rescue, rode with Janet and I to the new kennel. He is a handsome two year old male, and like many of our rescue dogs, it was hard to believe he was an owner surrender. Who could give up a dog like this? Landry was well behaved in the car and seemed a little scared. His nervousness was certainly understandable. The poor guy has been through a lot of changes in the last month or so. His life is going to take a turn for the better though. We're going to find him a great home with someone who realizes that having a dog is a lifelong commitment.

The new kennel is further away than the old kennel, but is is very clean and well managed. Everyone who helped with moving the dogs this morning liked the place and we think the dogs will like it too. Janet and I will be able to visit the dogs as well. We might not be able to visit quite as often because the kennel is quite a bit further from our house, but regular visits are important. Playing with the dogs and working on basic training will help socialize them and hopefully ensure a successful adoption.

Our winter weather continues to be full of surprises. It was quite warm today, which makes for pleasant walks. We walked Dawn in the dark again this morning because Janet had an early class at the gym. Dawn could care less whether it is dark or light outside. All she is interested in are the smells. She loves to smell things in the park. There are tons of critters who call the place home and Dawn is curious about all of them. We saw some bunnies this morning. We're seeing a lot more bunnies this year, which probably means there are fewer coyotes in the area.

I proofread my SpaceFlight article several times and selected several pictures to accompany it before sending everything off to my editor in London. I was fairly pleased with the article and hope the magazine likes it as well. Most of my pictures turned out well, but the camera I set up to take an automated launch sequence malfunctioned, so I didn't get good photos of the rocket leaving the pad. Everything else turned out excellent though. It might be a while before my next article. These trips are becoming a lot more expensive and I don't think I can afford to go to Kennedy Space Center more than a couple of times a year.     I still love to chase rockets though, so I'll find a way to get down there for important launches.

I did a lot better on my long walk today than I did yesterday. I completed my full six miles and got over 20,000 steps. The nice weather helped me maintain a pretty good pace today. The temperature was about 68 degrees and there was no wind. For me, this is just about perfect. I'm wondering if the eagles have moved on. I haven't seen Nick and Nora for over a month now. Another Muscovy Duck joined the small group that lives near Sunset Bay. I wonder where this one came from? Unlike the mallards, geese, and white pelicans which tend to travel in large groups, these Muscovy Ducks are loners. Maybe that's why they seem interesting to me.

Dawn got another ribbon at training class tonight. She's a smart dog and has won more ribbons than Dash by now. Janet says she really enjoys the class too. All in all it was a good day. Life is good as long as I keep the TV turned off and don't have to hear about current events. I prefer my own little world.

Dovey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4767

Today was very busy. Dawn got a bath. I went out and got ink for both printers and got them working again. All the batteries for my devices have been charged. The laundry has been done. I've answered my e-mail and caught up on all my messages. Of course Dawn got her early morning walk and I took a longer walk later in the morning. I still haven't finished packing, but there's still time. Hey, I've got to save something for the last possible minute.

I was surprised at how cold it was this morning. It was over 80 degrees yesterday, so I expected that it would be warm today as well. Nope. Texas weather is never predictable. The temperature was in the low 40's and there was a stiff wind. I was chilly on our early walk, but Dawn seemed to love the brisk weather.

Everything I did today seemed to take twice as long as I expected. The shower drain was clogged when I took a shower. Every towel we own seemed to be in the laundry. I wanted to switch to using Firefox on my laptop, but I had trouble importing my desktop settings. I still can't decide what clothes to take to Florida. Right now it's colder down there than it is here.

I felt like skipping my long walk today, but I went ahead and got my steps. I was reasonably fast today. I had to be. I doubt that I'll have time to take a long walk tomorrow, but Dawn will still get her early morning walk. Today I walked my regular route, counted all the ducks, and made it home in time to help Janet get Dawn ready for her bath. We go to a self bathe place in the neighborhood and Dawn always gets her nails clipped and her anal glands expressed while she's there. Needless to say, bath time is not one of Dawn's favorite activities. She looks so much better though. Her coat is actually white again. It's hard to keep Dawn clean after a bath because she loves to roll in the grass. Oh, well. She'll look good for a couple of days anyway.

I guess I'll finish packing after I complete this blog post. I hate packing. No matter how hard I try, I always forget something. Sometimes it's reading glasses and toothpaste. Other times it's a raincoat, or a sweater for cool mornings. At least I'm pretty good at getting the computers and cameras ready. I can spend hours transferring information from the desktop to the laptop and then just spend a few minutes throwing some clothes into the suitcase. True luxury would be having a Titusville apartment stocked with a full complement of everything I need. That's never going to happen, but it's something to daydream about on my long walks.

I've got my writing assignments now. The article the magazine wants isn't going to be as easy as some I've written in the past, but I'm pretty sure I can deliver what is needed. I've downloaded my boarding pass on my phone, so I guess I'm ready to go. Oops. My suitcase is still empty. I guess I've still got some work to do.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4731

I have a hard time getting used to Winter in Texas. A few weeks ago it was below freezing. Today the temperature was in the mid-70's. No goose down coats today. I wore shorts and a t-shirt on my walks. It would have been nice if the sun was shining today, but at least it wasn't raining. The sky was grey and looked like it was on the verge of raining all day, but luckily it never did.

We had a nice quiet walk with Dawn this morning. There were very few bicycles to avoid because the roads were wet. There weren't many joggers either which was surprising. It seemed like a good day for a run. One problem with days like this is that our shoes get muddy. We have a system for cleaning them but Dawn gets impatient with us. She's ready to go inside and eat some more as soon as we return home.

I continued changing old passwords today. Some of my oldest passwords were so simple that anyone could figure them out. I discovered that I'd reused many of these passwords as well. You can't do that these days. Implementing more secure passwords made me nostalgic for the days when the Internet was innocent and simple. These days it seems more of an adversary than a friend.

I continue walking in the park because I don't like fighting all the Christmas traffic on the way to the gym. At least a walk in the park creates an illusion of peace and tranquility. I saw both eagles today. They were sitting in their nest. I wonder why eagles love to build nests in dead trees. The eagles I see in Florida do the same thing. A rotten dead tree got Nick and Nora in trouble last year and they lost their nest. Hopefully they will have better luck this year.

I keep wondering why five of the domestic geese that live near Sunset Bay have disappeared. I keep thinking that someone captured them and took them home to eat. Something like this wouldn't really surprise me at all. There has to be a reason for all the "no trapping or poaching" signs I see along the shoreline. 

There is a rare occultation of Mars and the Moon happening right now. I'd been hoping to see this, but it's quite cloudy outside. I keep going out in the back yard, hoping for a break in the clouds. No such luck. Occasionally I'll see a faint glow through the clouds where the moon is supposed to be, but mostly I see nothing. The sky is really overcast tonight. My luck with astronomical events isn't very good. This definitely isn't the first time that bad weather has prevented me from seeing something interesting in the night sky.

There is another firmware update available for the star tracker but I didn't feel like bothering with it today. The day was dismal and I didn't feel like doing much of anything. Dawn was in a better mood than me and  actually did pretty well in her training class this evening. Maybe we'll see the sun tomorrow. I certainly hope so.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4459

It's hard to believe it might snow tomorrow. Today was beautiful. It's difficult to beat 70 degree temperatures, blue skies, and very little wind. Dawn must have agreed because she seemed eager to take her walk this morning. I'm seeing signs of Spring everywhere. I guess tomorrow we'll see what Winter still has to offer.

I haven't completely given up on doing website design using an old system on an external hard drive. I copied the rest of the files I need from the server this morning and I'll give this a try and see how it goes. It's certainly not very critical how I update websites these days. I only work on two: my own and the one for Dalmatian Rescue.

It must have been a really slow day because I got out the star tracker again and began experimenting with it. I upgraded the firmware for the third time and installed the latest app on my phone. It's counterintuitive how this thing works and I usually end up with the camera pointing backwards when I'm trying to track something. Since I've only been using the unit during the day so far the only targets I practice with are the sun and the moon. The sun is too bright to be pointing a camera at on a day like this, but the moon worked perfectly. I really need to try this at night sometime, but I'm going to wait until it's a little warmer. I actually think the Polaris tracker works quite well. The software continues to improve with each new version. Most of the many errors I've encountered have been caused by me and the lack of an instruction manual. I still think this saga would make an interesting story for Sky & Telescope, but the editors don't appear to be interested.

I've really got to think of a better way to spend my day than taking long walks and complaining about my feet. The foot pain was quite noticeable today, but I was able to complete my entire route. Walking seems so much better than sitting around the house or watching television. It's worth the discomfort. Walking is a pretty mindless activity, but there are lots of things to see and looking at my surrounding always gets me thinking. No deep thoughts, but I do like to daydream.

I'm still doing my best to win Dawn's trust. I don't want her to be scared or depressed when Janet goes on vacation. So far we're still working on the basics. She'll come when I call sometimes now, but not always. When she's real hungry she'll watch me fix her dinner, but usually she waits in the bedroom until I'm finished fixing things and go back to the office. Then she'll come out to the kitchen and eat.  She'll share the bed with me now when Janet is away from the house. That's an improvement. A month ago she would always go out to the kitchen when I came in the bedroom. We've never had a dog that didn't like men before. You have to be very patient.

I'm a lazy person but I miss working. Working gave my day the structure it needed. It would be nice to have some interesting writing or website projects again. Not very likely though. All my old clients have either retired or died. I can't relate to the young people who replaced them at all. For the most part, young people just irritate me. If this sounds like the definition of a grumpy old man, it probably is. I'm hanging in there though. The week's trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm ready for whatever Friday brings.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4173

Our weird weather continues. I saw the sun for a while this morning, but by mid-afternoon the sky was dark and I was hearing a lot of thunder. My schedule revolves around finding a time to walk these days. I usually manage to stay dry, but sometimes I end up cutting it pretty close.

While I was waiting for a good time to walk, I wrote a bunch of letters. I wrote the tree trimmer, thanking him for his estimate and told him that Janet and I still couldn't decide whether to remove the big Oak in the back yard or just trim it. I wrote SpaceFlight Magazine, asking them if there were any upcoming launches they particularly wanted to cover. I listed the launches I was interested in attending and am hoping that at least one of them will be something the magazine is interested in. I also wrote the observatory asking whether they were planning to continue their new photography night program. I heard back from the observatory in just a few hours with an affirmative answer. I think I'll probably be going back sometime this Fall. Maybe I'll get that little telescope I've had my eye on and take it with me.

Dawn seems to be getting more relaxed around me. We spend time in the back yard together every day when weather permits. She is very relaxed in the back yard with me and reasonably relaxed when we are napping on the bed together. The kitchen is still a problem though. I have a feeling that this is not going to change. 

The training class that we used to take Dot and Dash to has opened up again. It's another sign that Covid restrictions are over. Janet has decided that training will be good for Dawn and has enrolled her in a beginner's class. I'm not sure whether I'll go along or not. I used to train Dash while Janet trained Dot. There's not much point in going to the class without a dog. Dawn might do better in class without me around anyway, since I tend to make her nervous. I'm real curious to see how Dawn will do in this class. She really seems to want to be around other dogs.

The sky was already starting to look dark by the time we got around to walking this afternoon. Dawn was adventurous today and ventured off on a new route she hadn't tried before. She enjoyed smelling things and ended up walking much further than her normal one mile loop. It's encouraging to see her try new things.

We stayed dry on Dawn's walk but I had a feeling that I might get wet on my own longer walk. I continued walking anyway, checking the weather radar on my phone from time to time. For a while I thought I might be able to complete my regular six mile route until I started hearing thunder. I never saw any lightning, but the thunder was very loud. There must have been cloud to cloud lightning high overhead. I headed home expecting to get wet, but only experienced a few light sprinkles. I kept seeing heavy rain falling off in the distance and somehow managed to make it home before it arrived. It wasn't a great walk, but I managed to get enough steps to keep Mr. Fitbit happy.

I thought about mowing the grass today but it was still too wet. Some of my neighbors were mowing their grass, but they had gas mowers. My electric mower just isn't powerful enough to cut through wet grass. I hope we get some dry weather soon. The grass is growing fast and pretty soon it will be too tall to mow. 

It's time to make a grocery list again. I'm glad I got new windshield wipers because it looks like I'll be doing my shopping in the rain. This has been an unusually wet Spring. It probably means that we will have an unusually dry Summer.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4170

We've had every type of weather imaginable today. Pounding rain, high humidity, pleasant breezes, a little sunshine: take your pick. The heavy rain came early and it was relentless. It overwhelmed the pumps on the roof, but luckily the roof still didn't leak. In my younger days I would have climbed up on the roof during a dry spell and unclogged the pumps, but I'm just not up to it anymore. The roof will have to wait.

I'm going to have to come up with an alternative to watching television while I eat breakfast. Not only is the news unrelentingly depressing, the commercials are even worse. I seem to see the same seven mindless commercials over and over again. Most of them are for pharmaceutical products that will probably end up killing you in the long run. Even the business channels have gotten weird. I'm tired of hearing about bitcoin and non-fungible tokens. Nobody really understands these things, but everyone has a story about someone who got wealthy by buying or selling them. Young people seem to love bitcoin, but today's blockchain millionaires seem a lot like the Dutch tulip moguls of the 1600's. I'm old, so gold, boring blue chip stocks, and old Perry Mason movies make more sense to me.

I had to change the sheets today, which is always difficult with Dawn. It takes me a long time to make the bed now with a bad shoulder and weak knees. I usually try to make the bed while Dawn is eating breakfast, but when I'm changing the sheets I can never get finished in time. When Dawn finishes her breakfast she runs back to the bedroom and hops on the bed again. It doesn't matter to her whether the bed is made of not. I could shoo her away easy enough, but I don't want to make her even more fearful of me. I usually just let Dawn sleep on the bed until Janet returns from the gym for lunch and then Dawn goes out to the kitchen again. I eventually got the job done today, but it never used to take this long.

The more I hear about the post-pandemic surge in travel, the more hesitant I become to even try to return to Kennedy Space Center. There are plenty of launches this year, but hotel prices are rising rapidly, rental cars are scarce, flights are full, and everyone is encouraged to plan ahead. You can't really plan ahead with rocket launches. The dates are always changing. Maybe I'm just making excuses, but this doesn't seem like as much fun as it used to be. I'll be glad when everyone has taken their post-pandemic vacation and life returns to normal.

My long walk was certainly normal today. The skies had cleared, my foot wasn't bothering me, and I managed to complete my full six miles. It was still humid outside, but there was a nice breeze and I felt comfortable. There weren't a lot of people out today because of the recent rain and I pretty much had the park to myself. I like days like this. Even all the ducks were in their regular places, so they were easy to count.

I stopped taking famotidine last week because I thought I was taking too much of the heartburn medication. Bad move. Now, everything seems to give me heartburn. Even my breakfast smoothie gave me problems this morning. I always expect that my doctor will provide a solution to problems like this when I go in for a physical exam. He never does. I complain about feeling tired and having heartburn and he checks my vital signs and tells me how healthy I am. My blood work and EKG were perfect this time. So why do I feel so tired? If I made an effort to be vegan, I probably wouldn't have heartburn at all. Unfortunately, I love spicy food and have very little willpower about eating.

There's going to be an eclipse of the moon early tomorrow morning but I suspect that I will miss it. The forecast predicts cloudy weather with a chance of rain. The moon will be near the horizon anyway, which makes viewing difficult even on a good day. I"ll probably have to wait until I get back to West Texas to enjoy the night sky again.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4156

I made it out to the observatory in one piece. What a long drive. Every time I travel to West Texas I'm reminded what a big state Texas is. I felt like I drove halfway to California today. I traveled through every type of weather imaginable. Parts of the state had clear skies. Other parts had thunderstorms with lots of thunder and lightning. Towards the end of the drive I even encountered a small dust storm. The weather is nice at the observatory this evening. Who knows what it will be like tomorrow. I guess I"ll have to wait and see.

The worst part of the trip was a construction zone around Odessa where the freeway was shut down to a single lane for almost 40 miles. Traffic was backed up for miles. I was stuck between two eighteen wheelers and there was no place to get off the freeway. Luckily I'd gotten gas just before the construction zone started. This was no place to worry about running low on gas. My rental car was a huge SUV that gets terrible gas mileage. It was the only thing I could find with an in-dash navigation system and blind spot warning lights. When did gas get so expensive? It was over three dollars a gallon in most places.

I think I'm the only one staying at the Astronomer's Lodge tonight. It's kind of spooky up here. The manager and the cook were leaving when I arrived. They showed me my room and got my dinner for me and then they left. I think some more people are arriving tomorrow, but for now it's just me. Luckily the WiFi password hasn't changed. The password is so long and complex that I needed help getting online the last time I was here. Meals are amazingly good up here. I don't know how this place managed to snag such a good chef. 

One of my astronomer friends stopped by to say hello while I was eating dinner alone in the dining room. He invited me to join him later this evening to look for Red Sprites on the horizon. I'd never even heard of Red Sprites until recently, but they are a spectacular form of lightning in the upper atmosphere. Often they are hundreds of miles away when they appear.  Red Sprites only last a fraction of a second, so they are very difficult to photograph. Maybe I'll see a Sprite tonight. Maybe I'll see nothing. I'm pretty tired after today's drive. I see a pillow right now and a nap is pretty tempting.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. The workshop doesn't begin until later in the afternoon, so there's plenty of time to go exploring. I didn't get a lot of exercise today, so I really ought to take a long walk in the morning. I took a short walk after dinner and was very tired. My feet hurt too. Going to bed early tonight is starting to look better and better.

We did end up looking for Sprites around 10:30 this evening. The storms were too far away though and we didn't see anything. The sky was pretty though. The Milky Way was just starting to rise and the sky was alive with stars. I stayed outside for about an hour trying to identify constellations. I wish I was more familiar with the night sky, but that's what I'm here for. Tomorrow should be a busy day. Maybe after a good night's sleep I can finally figure out how to put my star tracker together.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4084

My allergies are driving me crazy this year. Every Spring my seasonal allergies seem to get worse and there doesn't seem to be much I can do. Antihistamines seem to be what most people recommend for allergies and they do nothing to stop my continual runny nose and itching eyes. Even so called modern antihistamines like Allegra don't deliver any relief. I'm sick of this. My nose is red and raw and I rub my eyes so often that Dr. Fauci would be appalled. This eventually goes away, but if experience is any guide, I  think I've got another month of misery.

I've been getting unexplained bug bites and I think I now know the cause. Ants. Little sweet ants invade the house every Spring and I think they're getting into my clothes. I was watching TV this afternoon and I watches an ant crawl out of my pants pocket and continue walking down my pants leg. The ants are just as hard to get rid of as the seasonal allergies. You can spray, but they always seem to find a new way to get inside. The ants disappear after a while too, but right now they're everywhere.

The temperature continues to fluctuate wildly. Yesterday it got up to 80 degrees, but today was much cooler. Yesterday I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Today, I had to wear a jacket again. I was actually glad to see the cooler weather. 80 degrees in February is a bit much. It's hard to believe that the temperature two weeks ago was near zero. To say the weather has been strange this year would be an understatement.

The rain was always nearby today, but we never got wet. Actually I hear thunder right now, but I think the rain is to the north of us. Janet and I must have been confident that it was going to stay dry for a while because we both washed our cars today.

I managed to get a lot of walking in today. I was lucky that my foot didn't hurt much. It's rare that I can have a 20,000 step day without a lot of foot pain. I wish I could pin down the cause for all these things that are bothering me. I've done everything my doctors have recommended for allergies and foot pain and nothing fundamentally seems to change. Things just seem to ebb and flow. I haven't even asked my doctor about the ants. He would just laugh.

When I wasn't walking today, I watched several videos about my new camera. There are some advanced features I'd like to use, but they aren't intuitive at all. It's much easier to watch someone explain them in a video than to read the instruction manual. YouTube videos have changed the whole world of do-it-yourself. I've learned how to repair appliances and upgrade computers watching YouTube videos. It looks like this will be how I master this complicated new camera as well.

We visit the rescue Dalmatians again tomorrow. It seems like a long drive to see two dogs, but Charlie and Cooper enjoy the visit and so do we. I really need to start working on my taxes tomorrow.  That's not something I enjoy, but I'm running out of time. I think there are all kinds of extensions available this year because of Covid, but I'm still going to file at the regular time. Why change now? I always file on April 15. What I'm really wondering is whether I'll be attending the Boeing Starliner launch on April 2.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4079

I tried to get organized today. I applied for press credentials to attend the Boeing Starliner launch in April. I made an appointment to get a haircut. I wrote the Air Force, asking how to renew my 45th Space Wing credentials when they expire in March. Amazingly, I was finally able to reach a real person at the dehumidifier company and asked if they could send me the part I need to get my replacement machine working properly. I thought this would be easy since I was talking directely to the manufacturer. Apparently, nothing is easy. 

I learned that I had reached the corporate headquarters here in the United States, but that the dehumidifiers were actually made in Mexico and that it was impossible to get the part I needed. "We can prorate your machine based on use and give you a refund," the technical support guy told me. This made no sense to me because the machine was brand new and I had paid nothing for it in the first place. "Wouldn't it be easier to just send me the inexpensive part I need," I asked? Nope. I guess if they want to send me money for a machine they just gave me, I'll take their money. I just need to remember to empty the collection bucket more often because this dehumidifier will overflow if it gets too full.

I hope that I haven't fallen out of the loop with NASA and the Air Force. It wasn't easy to get credentials to cover launches in the first place, and now it appears I will have to start all over again. Covid changed everything and there are new rules and restrictions now. Oh, well. It will give me something to do this Spring. It is frustrating how rare it is to be able to do something once and be done with it. People change jobs frequently. Rules change. I guess it has always been this way. I had to make new contacts frequently during my working days, but I was younger then and had more patience for this sort of thing.

Dawn is eager to go on her walks again. She seemed so happy to be outside this morning that we thought we'd see if she'd walk in a different direction. Nope. Every time we tried to get her to turn left, she insisted on turning right. The one mile loop she has chosen as her daily walk consists of a series of right turns. Dawn knows exactly where she wants to go and won't turn left at all. While I took my longer walk, Janet took Dawn in the car to a different park to get her used to different surroundings. As usual, she hated the car ride but was happy enough to walk around and smell things at the new location. I don't think we will ever know what is going through Dawn's head. She's made it pretty clear what she wants though, so we'll just go with that.

My feet didn't hurt as much today on my long walk. I walked the same distance at my usual pace, but it wasn't nearly as much of a struggle today. I didn't use any of the anti-inflammatory gel on my foot either. One more mystery to think about. I have no idea why the foot pain varies from day to day. I am very consistent about my activities. The weather has been pretty consistent for the past several days as well.

The weather has definitely not been consistent for the past several weeks. The temperature got up to 80 degrees this afternoon. At some point during the day, our air conditioner came on. It's pretty weird to go from -2 degrees to 80 degrees in less than a week, but that's what happened today. Texas weather is full of surprises. I guess I should have learned that by now.

I need to start raking leaves tomorrow. The leaves are dry again and we've got plenty of large leaf bags to put them in. Since we're looking at a solid week of rain on the horizon, tomorrow might be the best day to start this odious chore. I wish the leaves would just disappear on their own, but that's not going to happen.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4077

I hate getting old. It was a lot warmer today, so I thought I'd inflate my tires and get rid of the annoying warning light on my dash. I struggled to get the heavy air compressor out of the storage shed next to the carport. I'd put the compressor up on a shelf when I was younger and much stronger. Why didn't I put this thing on the floor like a sensible person? When I got the machine going and sat on the pavement to inflate the first tire, I realized that it was very hard to get up again. I went to the kitchen and brought out a chair to sit in while I was checking the tire pressure and inflating it to to proper specifications. I don't know why I never thought of this before. It's much easier to inflate tires sitting in a chair. These tires are supposed to be inflated with nitrogen, but who cares anymore. I'm tired of going to the Land Rover dealer and waiting around for an hour just to get my tires checked. All is well now. The tires were pretty low and they never would have inflated themselves.

The temperature got up to 70 degrees today which just shows you how weird Texas weather is. I thought for a while this afternoon that the air conditioner was going to come on in the house. I'm glad to have the warmer weather back. No more worries about frozen pipes and setting all the faucets to drip before I go to bed at night. I was expecting a lot of mud after the snow melted, but it seems to have just evaporated. The ground was surprisingly dry today.

The roads and trails were dry too, which allowed me to wear my good shoes on my walk today. The shoes made a big difference. My feet still began to hurt after about four miles, but I felt so much better than yesterday. Janet joined me today as well, which helped me to pick up my pace. She tends to walk a lot faster than I do. I'm sure this is because she is in better shape than I am.

I saw a huge possum on the back porch before I went to bed last night. This explains why Dawn has been so interested in smelling things in the yard lately.  We had to watch her carefully when she went out to pee this morning. Possums are beneficial animals, but I don't want our dogs to tangle with one. I have a feeling that the possum is probably living in our damaged greenhouse. There are probably a lot of critters living in that greenhouse.

Dawn is back to taking two walks a day again. She seems happy taking these two short walks. Maybe that all she ever wanted to do. She enjoys smelling things in the park and occasionally gets to greet another dog. She is very particular about other dogs. Some she clearly likes and others she tends to avoid. I'm always careful when we approach another dog, because it's hard to predict how she's going to react.

I wonder if we're ever going to get mail again? We haven't had any deliveries in over a week. Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but I'm waiting for some copies of SpaceFlight Magazine to arrive from England. These copies with my articles in the October and February issues were mailed just before the big storm hit. I know there are sitting in a bin at the post office somewhere, or maybe in a mail carrier's trunk. I hope they arrive eventually because I know the magazine is getting tired of me asking about the October issue. At least I don't worry about bills getting lost anymore. It's so much easier to just pay everything online.

I'm running out of time to get my tax material prepared for the accountant. I have no interest in doing this anymore. You know what they say about death and taxes though. I'd better get busy. I was always very meticulous about keeping accurate records when I was working. With each passing year I care less and less. I know there have been a lot of tax law changes because of Covid. I hope my accountant knows what they are, because I certainly don't. I still think old people should be exempt from all this stuff. It's hard enough to remember to take my pills every day.

It looks like everything will be back to normal tomorrow. I've got fresh fruit ready for my morning smoothie. The only thing on my calendar is my second Covid shot.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4006

It's weird how quickly the weather changes around here. The sky was completely clear when we started our walk this morning, but became overcast by the time we returned home. I thought it would warm up quickly because that's what happened yesterday, but it seemed to actually become colder as the day progressed. For the first time in quite a while I skipped my afternoon walk because I just didn't feel like dressing up in warm clothes again.

I received my author copies of Sky & Telescope in the mail today. I'd already received a PDF file of my article in the February issue, but I'm old school and like to hold a magazine in my hand. I've read this well known astronomy magazine off and on since I was in high school and it felt good to be included as one of the magazine's contributors. It felt even better to be the February issue's featured cover story. I think I'm on my way. I don't know what I'll write about in the future, but I definitely feel that there is a future.

Janet was gone this afternoon and when it was time for her dinner, Dawn followed me right out to the kitchen and watched as I prepared her evening meal. You'd think that any dog would do this naturally, but with Dawn this was progress. Inch by inch, she is slowly learning to trust me. I can join her on the bed now and she doesn't run away. I've learned to never make sudden movements and not to expect too much, but things are definitely changing for the better. Hopefully, by the time Covid restrictions are over and Janet starts to travel again, Dawn and I will be best buddies.

I need to find a place to observe the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21st. Both planets will be low in the Western sky and I don't have a good view of the Western horizon. I had the same problem when I was searching for comet Neowise earlier this year. Neowise was a little higher in the sky though. Hopefully, I'll find a good place close to home. I really don't like driving around in Dallas after dark anymore. It's a shame that cities don't feel safe these days. When I was younger I thought nothing of packing up my gear in front of a club at 2 AM after our band had finished a gig. Not anymore. Even an astronomical event that happens only once every 800 years, leaves me a little apprehensive. I'll find a good location, but this would be so much easier if I were out in the Davis Mountains.

I signed up for this pilot program with my insurance company to use a special device to continuously monitor my electrical wiring for signs that could potentially cause a fire. Since we live in an old house with dubious wiring, this sounds like a good idea. On the other hand since we live in an old house, the device will probably find problems and cause our insurance rates to increase. There's always a catch to everything. I've always been worried about electrical fires though, so on balance this still seems like a good idea. I just hope that every time it rains and the pump on the roof shorts out, the device doesn't send a warning to the monitoring company. This is going to happen and the outdoor outlet that the pump is plugged into is already protected by a breaker that I reset frequently. I guess we'll see what happens.

The weather forecast says that there's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow morning. What are the chances that we'll go on our morning walk anyway. Apple needs to do some work on it's iPhone weather app. It's almost always wrong.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4003 - Dawn's Birthday

Most of our dog's birthdays have been celebrated on the day we adopted them. It is rare to know a rescue dog's actual age. We know that Dawn is eight years old today because she was used as a breeding dog at the same kennel where she was born as a puppy. The dogs might not have been cared for well, but they did have records. I don't know if she ever had a birthday celebration before. We do know that she loves cake though. I think she had a good day today.

I went back to the dermatologist for a followup visit this afternoon. I think this visit was largely unnecessary, but the doctor did find two new patches of keratosis that he zapped with his handy bottle of liquid nitrogen. It's interesting that the solution to many minor skin problems is to freeze the offending area or burn it away. It seems pretty crude and basic to me, but it seems to work.

Going to the doctor still doesn't seem normal yet. All the new Covid protocols make it seem like you are in some kind of dystopian novel. You can tell that people don't want to ride in an elevator with anyone else in a hospital. They wait until they can get a car for themselves and then try to push the button before anyone else can get in. Half the chairs have been removed in most waiting rooms so that patients are spaced out. Everyone wears a mask of course and you always have to fill out a form saying that you don't have a cough, a fever, or have had any exposure to someone with Covid. Whoever is making those infrared forehead thermometers is making a ton of money. Everyone takes your temperature these days. Sometimes your temperature is taken several times before you actually see a doctor.

Apparently some of my friends out at McDonald Observatory have already received their copies of the February issue of Sky & Telescope. I got tagged on Facebook this evening with a congratulatory message about the article that included a picture of the February cover. My editor didn't even tell me that my article made the cover! I was surprised and elated. I didn't expect that I would be the magazine's feature article and I certainly didn't expect to be on the cover. Now I am stoked to write more astronomy articles. I'd like to go out to Mount Wilson in California and spend some time in Big Bend where the skies are even darker than they are on Mount Locke. All I need now is for Covid to go away. It's really put a damper on everything.

I watched the high altitude Starship test at Boca Chica on the Internet this afternoon. Everything went extremely well until the very end when the Starship exploded on landing. This was pretty good for a first test though. There are already two more Starship prototypes ready to go and I have a feeling that one of them will make a successful landing. SpaceFlight Magazine is interested in doing a feature on the Boca Chica facility, but I need to figure out if there is a story for me to tell. It is almost impossible to get access to the facility from Space X and if you go down on your own you can end up waiting weeks for a launch. Schedules change frequently and nobody on the outside really knows what is going on. There will be lots of Starship launches in the future, so maybe I can make some connections. I don't even know where I would stay right now.

I still can't figure out this weather we've been having lately. I had to wear a heavy coat on our morning walk with Dawn, but when I took my afternoon walk later in the day it was warm enough to wear shorts. I end up changing several times a day just to keep up with the weather. We've got another nice day in store for us tomorrow, but there's a 90% chance of rain on Friday. I don't know why I even look at these weather forecasts. They're always wrong.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3991

The new dehumidifier arrived today. Amazon Prime is still kind of amazing to me. Things really arrive fast. This new machine looks and feels basically just like the old one. It's the same size. There's an air intake vent, an exhaust vent, and a bucket that fills with water that the compressor extracts from the air. The controls on the top let you control the fan speed and set a target humidity level you'd like to reach. For some reason the instructions said to leave the machine in an upright position for two hours before turning it on. I'd never turn a dehumidifier on its side anyway, but I followed the instructions. The new dehumidifier was pretty noisy when I finally turned it on, but so was the old one. You get used to the noise. Hopefully this new dehumidifier will remove a lot more water from the house than the old machine. I'm hoping to get the old dehumidifier replaced under the warranty program as well. The house is big enough that two dehumidifiers would be useful.

Yesterday was cold. Today was much warmer. Texas weather makes no sense to me. It all seems so random. I always go out in the backyard after I wake up to see what type of jacket I need on our walk. There are days in November when I need two warm coats. There are other days when I can wear a t-shirt. Occasionally, our air conditioner still comes on in November. Some of the Spring flowers seem to re-bloom in the Fall when everything else is dying. That's a little confusing too. When we got the weather and the clothing sorted out, we had a nice walk. Dawn still has lots of energy and seems to feel a lot better than she did in the weeks before her seizure.

I didn't accomplish much today. I did get the new dehumidifier running, but that was about it. I tried to call my HVAC guy to see if he could do the diagnostic report that the manufacturer wanted before they would replace my old dehumidifier. No luck there. The place was closed for the holidays. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to set up the menus on my new camera. This camera offer a a lot of flexibility, but that means there are a lot of buttons and menu items to remember. I should probably watch some YouTube videos on my old cameras as well. I still haven't completely mastered any of them.

I'm wondering when I'll hear whether I've been accepted to attend that Artemis-1 static fire test at Stennis Space Center in late December. If I'm going to go I need to start planning. It seems kind of weird to want to go all the way to Mississippi to watch four rocket engines fire for eight minutes when the rocket isn't even going anywhere. This test is important though. The next stop for the rocket after the static fire is the moon. Hopefully Covid outbreaks won't continue to get worse. I think Southwest Airlines is going to start filling center seats again in December.

We had Thanksgiving dinner all over again tonight. Probably everybody else did too. There are always so many leftovers after a big meal like this. The meal was just as good the second time. I imagine there is enough left for a third time as well. I do love a really good smoked ham. I see lots of ham and cheese sandwiches in my future.

It looks like it is going to rain tomorrow. I'm hoping that we can get Dawn walked and I can take care of the grocery shopping before the rain begins. I'm never fond of rain. When it rains the roof may leak. A sudden storm may knock over one of the Oak trees in the back yard. Roads become slippery when it rains and Dallas drivers never slow down. Dawn refuses to go outside and pee when it rains as well. If it absolutely has to rain, I prefer that it happens at night when I can sleep through the whole thing. 

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3933

They've raised the rent on my storage warehouse again. These annual increases are so predictasble and relentless that it's infuriating. It's almost like they are begging you to move to a different location. I've already done this once, but it's a lot of trouble. I could probably save a lot of money by moving back to my old warehouse as a new customer. Like I said, it's a lot of trouble though. I wish I could just wave a magic wand and make some of this stuff go away. 

I don't want to have a yard sale because I hate dealing with strangers. I don't want to sell on eBay because a lot of the stuff is heavy and difficult to ship. I did make an effort two or three years ago to sell a few things. I was successful at selling most of the guitars. I repaired some of my vintage synthesizers, but there was no market for them. After three years about half of my train collection has sold. The old computers are basically worthless, but it's a lot of trouble to take them all apart and remove the hard drives. Stuff just accumulates and then you forget what it is or why you bought it in the first place. I've still got stuff from my Dad's estate in the warehouse. There are probably a few things from my grandparent's estate. There's a lesson in this somewhere, but I didn't learn it soon enough. The millennials who spend their money on experiences instead of stuff are probably the smart ones.

Dawn walks a little further every day. We're still going very short distances though. I'm not sure she'll ever get back to where she was before. We're not going to push her. When Dawn starts to slow down or look tired, we immediately turn around and go home. Dawn does seem to be improving. Tomorrow we start gradually reducing her Prednisone dose. The real test will come when she has finished all her meds.

The temperature was still nice when we took our short morning walk with Dawn, but warmer weather has definitely returned. It was actually pretty hot when I took my longer afternoon walk. I wish the weather was more predictable, but I guess I wish everything was more predictable. When I was walking this afternoon I saw the mother Muscovy duck again. There were only three ducklings with her this time. Where did the other three go? Nature can be pretty cruel. I'm not sure I even want to know what happened to the ducklings.

It looks like the Delta IV Heavy launch is finally going to happen tonight. The weather looks good and the countdown is going smoothly. I'd still like to see one of these giant rockets before they are retired and become obsolete. These days they are only used to launch billion dollar school bus sized spy satellites for the CIA. Nobody really knows what these satellites do, but watching them head into orbit is pretty impressive. I'll try to stay awake tonight and watch tonight's launch on my computer. The next time one of these monsters launches from Cape Canaveral sometime in 2022, I hope I can see it in person.

As I approach 4000 days on my blog quest, I'm really starting to wonder if it's worth the effort to go any further. I'm running out of things to say. A lot of days are so uneventful that I wonder why anyone reads this at all. Maybe I'll get a second wind and start doing interesting things again when Covid finally dies out and life returns to normal. Actually I don't even care if life returns to normal. I'd just like to travel normally again.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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