Day 4683

I got up early to take my car in for service this morning. They told me that if I was the first customer, I could wait while they did the work and I wouldn't have to leave the car for the day. The service appointment didn't take long because one of their machines broke and they couldn't do everything they'd planned. I did get an oil and filter change though and they turned off the annoying "service required" light on the dash. I was back home again before 9 AM.

I got an unpleasant surprise this morning when my hotel in Titusville called and told me that they had to cancel my reservation. What? Apparently they had a severe plumbing problem and an entire floor of the hotel had flooded. This left me in a bad situation. I'd made my reservations early to make sure I had a room for the next Artemis launch attempt. Now it was several weeks later and I had to scramble to find anything that wasn't already completely booked. All the convenient Airbnb's in the area were gone. I eventually found a hotel in Cocoa Beach, but it was a lot further away than I would have liked. Even worse, I will have to leave Dallas on launch day just to get a room. This won't really be a problem since the launch is at midnight but it is cutting things a little close. I kept looking and finally found another hotel that was closer to the space center but it was kind of run down. I booked this one too. I'll think about it for a few days and cancel one of the reservations. Since I'm leaving a day later now, I had to change my airline and rental car reservations as well. All this kind of makes me wonder why I do this. Attending a popular launch is so much trouble to arrange and it's all over in just a few minutes. It's amazing how quickly these rockets disappear in the sky.

Janet took Dawn on her sunrise walk while I was getting my car serviced, but I did get to take a walk in the park later in the day. I didn't do well today at all. My feet hurt for the entire walk and I was pretty slow. At least the weather was nice. It was a lot warmer than yesterday, but it was still a very pleasant Fall day. The walk itself was fairly boring, but not as boring as going to the gym.

It took me so long to find another hotel and reschedule everything that I didn't have much time for anything else today. I liked my original plan a lot better, but I guess this will have to do. I've always hated surprises and this was a big one. I'll still get to see the launch though, assuming that it doesn't get canceled or postponed again. I still can't decide whether to try to attend the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch as well. I haven't heard anything about my credentials yet, but this launch is happening pretty soon. Why are they waiting until the last minute to approve credentials? Oh, well. It is what it is. Realistically, it's too expensive for me to go to two launches so close together anyway, but I'll wait to make a final decision until I hear whether I've been accepted. 

Since my service appointment wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be, I can probably go ahead and get the dryer fixed this month. The machine still dries clothes just fine, but it's started making an ominous noise. I can't realistically ignore this much longer because the belt that turns the drum is starting to fail. The last time the appliance repairman was at the house I asked him how long the belt would last. "Maybe you've got a week. Maybe you've got a year," he told me. That wasn't much help at all.

It seems like it should be Saturday tomorrow, but we've still got another day to go. I've taken this weeks trash out to the curb and am still fretting about my change in travel plans. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Emily is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4561

I had trouble getting up this morning. I guess I stayed up too late finishing my blog post after the birthday celebrations. When we took our sunrise walk with Dawn I could tell that this wasn't going to be a good day for walking in the park. The temperature was already in the high 80's and it was quite humid.

It looks like it's going to be a long, hot summer so it's time to get serious about keeping everything in the yard from dying. After breakfast I went and bought a new hose and several sprinklers so I could water the front and back yards. It seems like I have to do this every year. Sprinklers just don't last very long. I sprayed WD-40 on last year's sprinklers, but they still wouldn't turn. I wasn't very surprised.

I was surprised when there was a loud knock at my front door this morning. I usually ignore people at the front door, but these guys were persistent. When I went outside to investigate, I found two delivery guys with another dishwasher. WTF? The big box was exactly the same as the new dishwasher that was already installed over a week ago. "Dude," I told these guys. "You already delivered this dishwasher over a week ago.  It's already been installed and is working fine." "No problem," one of the delivery guys told me and they hauled the dishwasher box back to the truck while grumbling about the mixup. Later in the day I got a voice message on my phone. This is just a courtesy call the voice said, to inform you that your recent delivery was declined. I have no idea how the store got things so screwed up. I'll have to check my credit card bill and make sure that they didn't charge me for two dishwashers.

We visited the rescue Dalmatians right after lunch today. I heard that someone might be looking at one of the dogs, but the same five boys are still there. Charlie, Oliver, Willie, JoJo, and Rocket are all doing fine. Rocket is recovering well from his heartworm treatment and was in good spirits today. Rocket has come a long way from the day we first met him. His skin condition has cleared up and his coat looks great now. He's overcome his severe shyness as well. He is well on his way to becoming a very normal, friendly dog. Janet and I are still surprised that Oliver hasn't found his forever home yet. This goofy guy seems like he would be a perfect family dog. We couldn't believe that JoJo still wanted to play in the outdoor yard today. It was so hot. It didn't seem to bother JoJo though. This dog just doesn't like being indoors.

My plan today was to go to the gym when we returned from the kennel. I was just about to get in the car and leave when I remembered a small hand written sign on the gym's front door saying that they would be closed on Monday, June 20 in observance of Juneteenth. Since my memory isn't so great, I went back in the house to check the website. The website said everything was still open. I then called the gym and nobody answered. My call just got routed to voicemail. This was a pretty good sign that the place was closed. I don't know why nobody bothers to update their websites anymore. This has happened to me before at this gym. Once burned, twice shy I guess. I used to manage dozens of websites and made daily changes to many of them. It's not that hard to keep things up to date. Hey, why bother though when a hand written sign on the front door will do.

It was kind of an odd day. Especially the part about the dishwasher delivery. It was nice to see the Dalmatians again. It would be even nicer if they would all find their forever homes soon.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3730

Today was amazing. Nothing went according to plan, but I managed to come up with a new plan that was much better. My tour guide shift was over early today, so I used my telescope key to open the door to the 82" Otto Struve dome and ask one of the staff members if it I could take pictures of the telescope. No problem. Go right ahead they told me. I had full access to the telescope floor all my myself and spent several hours getting some good pictures of the Otto Struve. I've always wanted to see this telescope, so this was an amazing opportunity.

Tonight's star party got canceled because of coronavirus fears. There was rain in the forecast and nobody thought it was a good idea to pack 500 people into the small visitor center theater for the alternate cloudy weather program. Since the CDC now recommends that gatherings of more than 50 people be canceled, moving the star party indoors wasn't going to work. Everything was canceled and I had the night off.

Since I was expecting rain, I thought I'd spend the evening in my room watching Netflix movies on my computer. Amazingly, the skies cleared around 9 PM and I got an e-mail from an astronomer I'd met earlier in the day, asking me if I'd like to join him while he was observing at the 36" telescope.

This telescope was only a short walk from the Astronomer's Lodge, so I said I'd be there in a few minutes. We spent the next three hours looking at things I'd been wanting to see for years. I saw the Owl Nebula, Cleopatra's Eye, The Crab Nebula, The Eskimo Nebula, and the beautiful planetary nebula NGC 2438 superimposed on the open cluster M-46. Of course we looked at the Orion Nebula too and I could see colors and fine detail for the first time ever. The evening ended up being much better than the star party that was originally planned and probably better than a special viewing night as well. Best of all, I may get a chance to spend another evening at this telescope several days from now if the weather holds up. I think I finally have enough information so I can actually write my Sky and Telescope article the way it was originally intended.

The coronavirus has finally left its mark on the observatory. Nobody is sick, but all the rules have changed. Mostly this is because technically the observatory is part of the University of Texas system and has to follow the University's guidelines. We used to serve ourselves at a buffet line for lunch and dinner at the Astronomer's Lodge. No self service anymore, Starting today, the kitchen staff, all wearing gloves, has to hand us our food individually. I guess they were worried that someone would sneeze on the buffet table. Silverware is individually wrapped now and our salad is served in saran wrapped bowls instead of the giant salad bowl where we used to serve ourselves. There aren't big bowls of Guacamole and hot sauce on the tables anymore. We have our condiments served in little plastic cups with lids now. Do all these precautions actually change anything. I doubt it. Rules are rules though and I imagine that things will only get worse in the near future. Nobody wants to get sick. It's not acceptable to cough or sneeze in public anymore. Jeez. I've spent most of my life sneezing for no reason at all. It's awkward.

Tomorrow is my day off and I was thinking of driving to Marfa  It all depends on whether it rains or not. I'm not going to worry about the weather though. Something interesting will happen rain or shine. It always does.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1387

Dot had another seizure this morning. This one was more severe than her previous seizures and exhibited some of the symptoms commonly associated with a stroke. I was worried. It was very discouraging to realize that our theory that her previous seizures were caused by taking Trifexis were probably wrong. Dot hasn't been taking the Trifexis heartworm medication since we switched her back to Sentinel over four months ago.

Dot's seizure began before she even got out of bed this morning. I was getting dressed to go to my Wednesday morning business networking meeting, but quickly changed my plans. Since our veterinarian's office opens at 7 AM, I immediately put Dot in the car and took her over to see the vet. They took some X-rays and kept her the rest of the morning for evaluation. By the time I returned to pick her up at noon, she was completely back to normal.

I have no idea what is causing these seizures. Dot's seizures are very different from the more violent epileptic seizures Dash has. Dot sits quietly and appears to be suffering from a severe case of motion sickness or vertigo. Since there is no longer a strong case that her seizures are caused by Trifexis, there are now more serious things to rule out. She probably needs an MRI to determine if she might have a brain tumor. I have my suspicions that today's seizure might have been caused by the herbicides I saw park workers spraying around the park last week. Seizures can be caused by exposure to the Organophosphate herbicides that are commonly used to control weeds in public parks and recreation areas. It would be hard to prove that herbicides caused Dot's seizure and even harder to avoid them. The park grounds crews sprayed the stuff with such reckless abandon last week that it is almost impossible to avoid.

We skipped Dot's acupuncture session today as well. I called her physical therapy vet right after the seizure happened and she said it would be best to give Dot a rest this week. With no place to go, I stayed in the office and kept a watchful eye on Dot for the rest of the day while I got caught up on my writing assignments. The only other thing I did today was lots of laundry. Dogs frequently lose control of their bowels during seizures, so there were lots of sheets and blankets to wash.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a normal, uneventful day with no further medical issues. Today didn't start normally and it didn't end normally. We thought we'd go ahead and take the dogs to training class tonight, but just have them do the easy exercises. Unfortunately, our regular teacher was gone and his replacement was a maniacal drill Sargent type who aggressively put the dogs through their paces and stressed most of them out. When a fight broke out between two stressed dogs, Janet and I decided that our dogs didn't need any more of this and we left the class early.

Oh well, the worst is over and tomorrow is another day. I say this hopefully at the end of every day.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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