Day 4042

I signed up for the vaccine on a few websites today. I thought this whole vaccination effort would be more organized, but this is apparently how you do it. All the pharmacies, hospitals, and other locations that have been designated as distribution centers have websites saying that they'll have the vaccine soon. None of them appear to have it now. You just leave your e-mail address on the websites and I guess they'll get back to you. I was just going to wait until I could get the shot at my doctor's office, but if Janet and I can get vaccinated earlier, we'll feel a lot better about traveling.

I'm sure there are side effects to the vaccine but I'm not going to worry about them. I've already been vaccinated for almost everything and there were side effects to all those other vaccines too. Most vaccines leave me with a sore arm for a few days and that's it. I'm old enough to remember kids who had polio. You really want to eliminate these kind of problems if you've got a chance. If we all end up growing a third ear a few years from now, well it won't be the first time that humanity screwed up.

Dawn seems to be walking fine now. She's not very adventurous and only wants to walk for one mile on very familiar routes, but she does seem to be enjoying herself. What was going through her head when she used to take much longer walks with us? We thought she was enjoying herself then too. This is a fairly dramatic change and there doesn't appear to be any physical reason for it. We've had Dalmatians for many, many years and they've all loved to walk. Maybe something happened when Dawn had her seizure several months ago. Maybe she's finally become confident enough to let us know how she really feels. I have a feeling that we may never know what has caused this strange change in behavior.

After we took Dawn back to the house, Janet and I continued walking along the old route where we used to take Dawn. It was a beautiful day, but it didn't seem the same without a dog. We both kept thinking that Dawn was missing out on an enjoyable afternoon. Dawn probably thought we were missing out on an enjoyable nap.

I feel like I've lost my momentum. I'd made some good contacts at Kennedy Space Center and had made three trips out to McDonald Observatory. Stories were getting published and I felt like I was on my way. Then Covid ruined everything. NASA became much more restrictive with press credentials. My main contact at the Air Force retired and I'm going to have to start all over again getting credentialed through them. West Texas became a virus hot spot and the observatory shut down. There's absolutely nothing I'm interested in writing about in Dallas. I get up in the morning and I walk. That's about it.

We'll go visit the Dalmatians at the kennel tomorrow. On Tuesday Dawn has an appointment to have her teeth cleaned and then on Wednesday I have my own dental appointment. I think that the SN9 Starship prototype is supposed to fly next week as well. It should be a fairly busy week. I don't think there will be time to get the leaves raked before the next big trash day. We'll save that for next month.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4029

Good grief. My watch dialed 911 in my sleep last night. That was a surprise. I woke up to this voice saying "This is Dallas 911, can we help you." What? It took me a moment to realize what was going on, but when I noticed that the voice was coming from my watch, I knew. I spoke into the watch and told the lady that I was sorry, but the call was a mistake. "That's OK," the dispatcher said and hung up. How did this happen? I didn't even know that my watch had this capability. I definitely didn't want this to happen again, so I took the watch off and put it in the office before I went back to bed.

This morning I opened up the Apple Watch app on my phone and looked carefully at all the settings. Sure enough, there was an SOS setting that would summon an emergency response if you fell and didn't immediately press the "I'm OK" button on the watch face. You could also place an emergency call if you held down the flat side button on the side of the watch for a certain length of time. Maybe this button got pressed in my sleep. I certainly didn't fall, although this watch has done strange things before. I disabled the SOS function because I didn't want to wake up later this week with an ambulance in the driveway and EMT technicians knocking on my door. I guess it's a good thing that your watch can call 911 in an emergency, but I wouldn't call having a dream much of an emergency. It wouldn't take long to get classified as a nuisance caller if your watch did this very often. Nice idea Apple, but I don't think this feature is quite ready for prime time.

The watch incident reminded me that I still had a free offer to upgrade to Fitbit Premium. My health insurance provider recently added Fitbit integration to it's gym membership program. The letter that explained the offer had been sitting on my desk for weeks, but I'd never bothered to follow the instructions for the Fitbit upgrade. Fitbit Premium seems harmless enough. I like tracking fitness stats and I don't think there is any way that my Fitbit will call 911 in my sleep. The Fitbit upgrade is probably like that sensor that monitors our electric wiring. A year from now I'll probably regret signing up for both services.

I tried to call the dehumidifier manufacturer and ask some questions about the strange behavior of the replacement unit I received. The company still seems to be closed for the holidays. Nobody answered my call or the e-mail I subsequently sent. Something is clearly wrong with the replacement dehumidifier. I still think they sent me a refurbished unit instead of a new machine.

Since it's Monday, Janet and I went up to visit the kennel Dalmatians this afternoon. The kennel was quiet and most of the holiday boarding dogs were gone. There are currently three Dalmatians at the kennel and I think a fourth might be coming next week. I still need to take pictures of Cooper, but since he is still dealing with a few health issues, he is not ready for adoption yet. I'll take my camera when we visit next week. There might be two dogs to photograph.

When we walked Dawn this morning, she only walked one mile, just like yesterday. We wondered if she'd like to try another walk when we returned from the Dalmatian kennel. She seemed enthusiastic, but froze again after she had traveled one mile. One mile seems to be her limit these days. Nothing is wrong with Dawn. As soon as she sees that we have turned around and are headed home, she resumes walking briskly toward the house. Instead of training Dawn, I think she is training us.

I'm curious when Janet and I will get the vaccine. Several people I know have already been vaccinated. Since we are older and in a high priority group, I don't imagine that the wait will be all that long. I'll take the vaccine, but I'm in no hurry. I'd like to see if the people ahead of me in line have any serious side effects. Will life return to normal when Janet and I have been vaccinated? Somehow, I doubt it.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day