Day 4655 - Autumnal Equinox

It's officially Fall. I'm more than ready. With a record setting string of 100 degree days, this Summer was brutal. Hopefully, the cooler weather will bring lower electric bills. I'm not terribly confident though. Nothing seems to go down in price these days. The first day of Fall got off to a good start with our sunrise walk this morning. Not only was it nice and cool outside, the humidity was low as well. Cooler weather always puts me in a better mood. Sometimes this doesn't last very long, but I'll take what I can get.

Since the weather was nice, I took my long walk in the park instead of going to the gym. I kind of miss all the construction that was going on this Summer. It gave me something to look at and speculate about while I was walking. Now I'm back to counting ducks again. When I arrived at the lake I saw our five resident geese swimming toward Sunset Bay. The bay was several miles away at the time, but the geese beat me there. I've been watching these geese for years and I've never actually seen them fly. Since they appear to be domestic geese, I wonder if they can fly. The two resident Muscovy ducks that hang out with these geese can definitely fly. They have large wingspans and are quite impressive when in the air.

I still walk faster outdoors than I do at the gym. I suspect that this is because the first two-thirds of my walk are downhill. When I measure the final uphill climb to get back home, my pace slows considerably. Surprisingly, there are still quite a few wildflowers in the park. The Purple Asters are in bloom. So are Clematis, Goldenrod, and Water Primrose. The only bad thing about walking in the Fall is that my seasonal allergies are back. There are only about two months a year where I am free of allergy problems. My Spring allergies last into Summer and my Fall allergies last into Winter.

It's getting frustrating that NASA still hasn't announced an official date for the next Artemis launch attempt. They are already hedging their bets on the 27th by calling this a "tentative" launch date.  We've been issued instructions about when and where to pick up our credentials for the 27th though. I really expect that the date will change but I haven't canceled my reservations yet. I'm superstitious. If I canceled my reservations, this would almost guarantee that the launch would take place on the 27th. Maybe I'll hear some news tomorrow. I remember hearing that the launch team would make a final decision before the end of the week. When does the week end though? I can't even remember.

I think my interest in astronomy might be waning. Mars is approaching opposition and getting brighter every month. Jupiter is the closest it has been to earth in 70 years. I still haven't gotten out my telescope to view either of these planets though. Mars rises in the East around midnight but I've got no excuse for Jupiter. I could probably go outside right now and see it if I wanted. My main excuse is mosquitos. We've got lots of mosquitos at night now. I'm also just tired. As soon as I finish writing my blog post all I want to do is go to sleep.

When I took this weeks trash out to the curb this evening I noticed that the city had picked up the bulky trash piles on the street sometime this afternoon. I was going to add a few things to our pile, but I guess I'll have to wait until next month. Will I go to the gym tomorrow or take another long walk? Either way, it's probably the only decision I'll make all day.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4425

Another very cold day. There was no new snow or ice, but very little melted. As I expected, we have a small roof leak caused by heat from the house melting the ice on the roof from the bottom up. There is still a layer of ice on the roof, but it has started to melt underneath. It's way too slippery to climb up on the roof and fix things, so I'll just have to live with this for a while. At least it's a very small leak so far.

Dawn hates the snow, so she went without a walk again today. I should have done the same, but I run out of things to do in the house fairly quickly. I need a long walk to kill time. Janet can't go back to the gym until the roads clear up, so we took another walk together in the park today. I tried some different boots but they were worse than yesterday's boots. I really need to find some of the more comfortable Hoka boots, but they seem to be out of stock nationwide. I'm sure they'll be back in stock this summer when I won't need them anymore. I think we saw one of the eagles in the nest this afternoon, but we couldn't get closer because melting snow has turned the best vantage point into a swamp. It was a nice day for a walk though. The sun was out and there wasn't much of a wind. I just wish it were a little warmer.

I think I've finally figured out how to use the star tracker. Since I was house bound for most of the day, I spent a lot of time trying to master the surprisingly complex gadget. You can't really track stars indoors during the day, but you can see if the camera and tracker are pointed in the right direction using planetarium software on my computer. At any rate, I think I'm making progress. I was able to go back and forth between several targets without the software crashing. I also learned how to use the tracker to create panoramas and time lapse sequences. I still haven't taken the device outside and photographed anything, but that day will come. All in good time.

It's too bad I don't enjoy watching Netflix movies. Snow days are perfect for binge watching something. I'm not sure what I enjoy anymore. Astronomy is a strange hobby to have if you don't feel comfortable going outside at night. Dallas feels too dangerous for astronomy. I love my time out at McDonald Observatory, but it is way too far away for casual observing. The worse my foot gets, the more I dread making a long car trip as well. I'm even starting to feel out of the loop down at Kennedy Space Center. There's a lot going on right now and if you only make one or two trips a year, it's hard to be considered a serious part of the space reporting community. Some of my Florida friends are on site almost every week. Hopefully, I'll still get to cover the Artemis 1 launch later this year, but you never know. I'd better take advantage of any opportunity I get. I'm starting to think my traveling days are numbered.

It looks like I will be traveling to the grocery store tomorrow. The larger roads are almost completely free of ice by now and tomorrow should be even warmer than today. I'm sure prices will continue to get higher.  Almost everything is higher these days. I got a bill from my web hosting company yesterday and the annual rate almost doubled. Do I even need a website anymore? Probably not. You think more about the cost of things when you are retired. When I was working I never gave a second thought to the cost of anything. In retrospect, those days were pretty good.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day