Day 4543

We had another big thunderstorm last night. The thunder was so loud that it scared Dawn, who typically ignores these things. I woke up when Dawn kept hopping off the bed to go to her "safe" place in the corner of the room and then hopping back on the bed again a few minutes later. It took about fifteen minutes before she decided that it was safe enough to go back to sleep again. I kept getting text messages on my phone from Oncor saying that there was a power outage in our area, but we never lost power. The roof didn't leak either. Luckily, storms with straight line winds move quickly and everything was calm by morning. I'm tired of all this rain, but at least the lawn looks good. Late Spring is usually pretty wet here. By July, I'll be wishing these storms were back again.

It was way too wet to take a sunrise walk with Dawn this morning. She didn't even want to go out in the back yard and pee. We figured that we could walk her later in the day. I ate my breakfast and ran the pumps on the roof. Amazingly, they're still working. Now that Summer is approaching and most of last Fall's leaves are gone, I'm just going to let the residual standing water on the roof evaporate. There's no reason to tempt fate by climbing up there too often.

The accessory I ordered for the star tracker came in today's mail. This will make it easier to attach the camera to the tracker in both landscape and portrait orientations. I've got everything I need now. All that's missing are some dark skies and the will to go outside at night and get bitten by mosquitos and chiggers. I'll keep practicing with the tracker so I can reliably set it up and use it in the dark. One of these days it will go back to McDonald Observatory with me.

I took my long walk early today while the air was still cool from last night's storm. As long as it's not hot and muggy, I still prefer walking in the park to working out at the gym. I was surprised when after a few miles my route was blocked by a construction crew. They were putting in a new bridge over one of the creeks that feeds the lake. It looked like they built the entire bridge offsite and were just lifting it in place with a giant crane. I've been watching crews build the concrete piers for this bridge for weeks. I still didn't expect that this is the way they would finish things though. Since I couldn't walk any further, I turned around and walked the other way. I ended up getting the same amount of steps and saw a part of the lake I haven't visited in months.

Dawn was almost back to normal today, but she's still a little more nervous than usual. She freaked out for a few minutes when she heard the mailman at the front door this morning. Dawn doesn't like surprises. Anything out of the ordinary can startle or scare her. I'm beginning to think that she has PTSD. She seems to behave very similarly to the way many people do with PTSD. Clearly something traumatic happened in her past and she'll probably never forget it.

I saw a rat in the atrium today. We haven't seen rats in the yard for almost five years. There was a guy in the neighborhood who used to take care of a lot of feral cats. I think they kept the rat population down. He found homes for the cats before he moved and I haven't seen cats in the neighborhood for quite a while. Owls used to eat mice and rats in the meadow behind our house as well. I don't even hear the owls anymore. I wonder where they went? 

I'm pretty sure the dishwasher is leaking. Do we need a new dishwasher, or is there just a loose water line connection somewhere?  I'll have to call the appliance repairman to find out what is going on. He'll probably monkey around for half a day and then tell me that I need to call a plumber. Nothing is easy these days.

At least the week is almost over. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and the weather looks like it's going to be nice tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be uneventful. I'm kind of like Dawn in may ways. I'm good as long as there are no surprises.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3986

Another cold front must be moving through the area. The temperature actually fell as the day progressed. I only needed a light jacket when we took our morning walk with Dawn, but a warmer coat was required by the time I took my afternoon walk. I was surprised at how cold it was this afternoon. The rain we were expecting has been postponed until Tuesday as well. All this is fine by me. I do wish the weather was more consistent though.

I'm getting bombarded with Black Friday deals. This happens every year. These deals always make it extremely tempting to buy camera and electronic gear that I don't really need. Today I was tempted enough by deals on Panasonic GH-5 and Olympus OM-D E-M1X camera bodies to waste about an hour online  researching features while trying to convince myself that I actually needed another camera. I don't. That's never stopped me before unfortunately.

What we do need is another dehumidifier. The performance of our current dehumidifier continues to deteriorate. The symptoms I'm experiencing appear to be caused by either operating in too cold of an environment, a dirty air filter, or leaking refrigerant. The house is pretty warm, the air filter is clean, so it must be the refrigerant. This, unfortunately is expensive to fix and it's a lot easier to just buy a new unit. Maybe it's time to change brands. I have a Friedrich now but the online reviews say a Frigidaire might be the better choice. This is what I do on uneventful days. I don't watch Netflix movies or get distracted by politics. I methodically research my next purchase.

The only thing I bought today was socks. REI had the wool hiking socks I like for 30% off. I don't know why socks have gotten so expensive, but if you walk a lot you've got to have good socks. While I was at the store, I picked up a small LED headlamp. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while. This headlamp has a red setting that won't affect your night vision and will be very useful the next time I attempt astrophotography or photograph a rocket launch at night. It's harder than you think to adjust camera settings in the dark without a red light that won't ruin your night vision.

We got a late start on our morning walk, so I got to sleep in again. Janet and Dawn like to get up earlier than me, so I'm usually struggling to get ready in time. Maybe it would be easier to get up early if writing the blog wasn't the last thing I did every day before going to bed. Lately, these posts have been taking longer than usual. The writing is easy when something interesting happens. Uneventful days can be a challenge.

I have to remember not to eat breakfast tomorrow. I have a semi-annual physical at my doctor's office and I have to fast for the blood work. I need to remember to ask why I frequently have coughing spells while I am eating and why my feet hurt all the time. Neither of these conditions are new. I just forget to ask about them. Maybe I'll wear one of my new N-95 masks and see whether the doctor notices. I guess I should ask about my insect bites as well. They still haven't cleared up.

Dawn continues to have much more energy and enthusiasm than she did before her seizure. It's hard to believe that a simple course of antibiotics and Prednisone would make such a difference, but Dawn is definitely feeling better. Maybe the cooler weather helps as well. At any rate, it nice to see her enjoying life again. Now I just need to find a little more energy myself. I didn't hear a thing about Dealey Plaza or the Kennedy assassination on the news today. I think the world has forgotten about it.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day